A  HISTORY  OF 
LIFE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 


THE    BEGINNERS   OF   A   NATION 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  SOURCE  AND  RISE 
OF  THE   EARLIEST   ENGLISH   SETTLE 
MENTS  IN  AMERICA  WITH  SPECIAL 
REFERENCE  TO   THE   LIFE  AND 
CHARACTER  OF  THE  PEOPLE 


BY 

EDWARD   EGGLESTON 


NEW   YORK 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1897 


COPYRIGHT,  1896, 
Bv  EDWARD  EGGLESTON. 


TO 
THE  RIGHT  HONORABLE  JAMES  BRYCE,  M.P. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BRYCE  : 

In  giving  an  account  of  the  origins  of  the  United 
States,  I  have  told  a  story  of  English  achievement.  It 
is  fitting  that  I  should  inscribe  it  to  you,  who  of  all  the 
Englishmen  of  this  generation  have  rendered  the  most  emi 
nent  service  to  the  American  Commonwealth.  You  have 
shown  with  admirable  clearness  and  candor,  and  with 
marvelous  breadth  of  thought  and  sympathy,  what  are  the 
results  in  the  present  time  of  the  English  beginnings  in 
America,  and  to  you,  therefore,  I  offer  this  volume.  I 
need  not  assure  you  that  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to 
write  your  name  here  as  godfather  to  my  book,  and  to 
subscribe  myself,  my  dear  Mr.  Bryce, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

EDWARD  EGGLESTON. 


PREFACE. 


IN  this  work,  brought  to  completion  after  many 
years  of  patient  research,  I  have  sought  to  trace  from 
their  source  the  various  and  often  complex  movements 
that  resulted  in  the  early  English  settlements  in  Amer 
ica,  and  in  the  evolution  of  a  great  nation  with  English 
speech  and  traditions.  It  has  been  my  aim  to  make 
these  pages  reflect  the  character  of  the  age  in  which 
the  English  colonies  were  begun,  and  the  traits  of  the 
colonists,  and  to  bring  into  relief  the  social,  political, 
intellectual,  and  religious  forces  that  promoted  emigra 
tion.  This  does  not  pretend  to  be  the  usual  account 
of  all  the  events  attending  early  colonization ;  it  is 
rather  a  history  in  which  the  succession  of  cause  and 
effect  is  the  main  topic — a  history  of  the  dynamics  of 
colony-planting  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury.  Who  were  the  beginners  of  English  life  in  Amer 
ica  ?  What  propulsions  sent  them  for  refuge  to  a  wil 
derness  ?  What  visions  beckoned  them  to  undertake 
the  founding  of  new  states  ?  What  manner  of  men  were 
their  leaders  ?  And  what  is  the  story  of  their  hopes, 
their  experiments,  and  their  disappointments  ?  These 
are  the  questions  I  have  tried  to  answer. 

The  founders  of  the  little  settlements  that  had  the 
unexpected  fortune  to  expand  into  an  empire  I  have 
not  been  able  to  treat  otherwise  than  unreverently. 
Here  are  no  forefathers  or  foremothers,  but  simply  Eng 
lish  men  and  women  of  the  seventeenth  century,  with 
the  faults  and  fanaticisms  as  well  as  the  virtues  of 
their  age.  I  have  disregarded  that  convention  which 

vii 


Vlll 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


PREFACE. 


makes  it  obligatory  for  a  writer  of  American  history 
to  explain  that  intolerance  in  the  first  settlers  was  not 
just  like  other  intolerance,  and  that  their  cruelty  and  in 
justice  were  justifiable  under  the  circumstances.  This 
walking  backward  to  throw  a  mantle  over  the  nakedness 
of  ancestors  may  be  admirable  as  an  example  of  dilu- 
vian  piety,  but  it  is  none  the  less  reprehensible  in  the 
writing  of  history. 

While  the  present  work  is  complete  in  itself,  it  is  also 
part  of  a  larger  enterprise,  as  the  half-title  indicates. 
In  January,  1880;  I  began  to  make  studies  for  a  History 
of  Life  in  the  United  States.  For  the  last  sixteen  or 
seventeen  years  by  far  the  greater  part  of  my  time  has 
been  given  to  researches  on  the  culture  history  of  the 
United  States  in  the  period  of  English  domination,  that 
"  good  old  colony  time"  about  which  we  have  had  more 
sentiment  than  information.  As  year  after  year  was 
consumed  in  this  toilsome  preparation,  the  magnitude 
of  the  task  became  apparent,  and  I  began  to  feel  the 
fear  for  my  work  so  felicitously  expressed  by  Ralegh, 
"  that  the  darkness  of  age  and  death  would  have  cov 
ered  over  both  it  and  me  before  the  performance."  It 
seemed  better,  therefore,  to  redeem  from  the  chance  of 
such  mishap  a  portion  of  my  work,  by  completing  this 
most  difficult  part  of  the  task,  in  order  that  when,  early 
or  late,  the  inevitable  night  shall  fall,  the  results  of  my 
labor,  such  as  they  are,  may  not  be  wholly  covered  over 
by  the  darkness. 

There  is  always  difference  of  opinion  in  regard  to 
the  comparative  fullness  with  which  the  several  portions 
of  a  historical  narrative  should  be  treated,  and  I  can 
not  hope  to  escape  criticism  on  this  point.  I  have  re 
lated  some  events  with  what  will  be  considered  dispro 
portionate  amplitude  of  detail.  But  the  distinctive  pur 
pose  of  this  work  is  to  give  an  insight  into  the  life  and 
character  of  the  people,  and  there  are  details  that  make 
the  reader  feel  the  very  spirit  and  manner  of  the  time. 
It  is  better  to  let  the  age  disclose  itself  in  action ;  it 


Preface. 


IX 


is  only  by  ingenious  eavesdropping  and  peeps  through 
keyholes  that  we  can  win  this  kind  of  knowledge  from 
the  past.  Literary  considerations  should  have  some 
weight  in  deciding  how  fully  an  episode  shall  be  treat 
ed,  unless  the  historian  is  content  to  perform  the  homely 
service  of  a  purveyor  of  the  crude  ore  of  knowledge. 
I  have  sought  to  make  this  "  a  work  of  art  as  well  as  of 
historical  science,"  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  Augustin 
Thierry.  Some  omissions  in  this  volume  will  be  ex 
plained  when  its  successors  appear. 

I  find  it  an  embarrassing  task  to  make  acknowledg 
ment  to  those  who  have  assisted  me  ;  the  debts  that 
have  accumulated  since  I  began  are  too  many  to  be 
recorded.  I  must  not  neglect  to  express  my  grateful 
remembrance  of  the  hospitality  shown  to  my  researches 
during  my  various  sojourns  in  England.  At  the  British 
Museum  and  at  the  Public  Record  Office  every  facility 
has  been  extended  to  me,  and  a  similar  attention  was 
shown  to  my  wants  at  other  less  public  repositories  of 
books,  such  as  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel.  To  Dr.  Richard  Garnett,  the  head  of  the  print 
ed  book  department  of  the  Museum,  I  owe  thanks  for 
many  personal  attentions.  I  am  also  indebted  to  Mr. 
E.  M.  Thompson,  keeper  of  the  manuscripts  in  the  mu 
seum.  The  late  Mr.  W.  Noel  Sainsbury,  of  the  Public 
Record  Office,  was  very  obliging.  I  owe  most  of  all  to 
the  unfailing  kindness  of  the  Right  Honorable  James 
Bryce,  M.  P.,  who  found  time,  in  the  midst  of  his  pre 
occupations  as  a  member  of  Parliament  and  his  duties 
in  high  office,  to  secure  for  me  access  to  private  stores 
of  historical  material.  Lord  Edmund  Fitzmaurice  with 
generous  kindness  put  himself  to  much  trouble  to  facili 
tate  my  examination  of  the  manuscripts  at  Landsdowne 
House.  I  am  indebted  to  Lord  Leconsfield  for  permis 
sion  to  visit  Petworth  House  and  read  there  Percy's 
Trewe  Relacion  in  the  original  manuscript.  I  must  ask 
others  in  England  who  befriended  my  researches  to  ac 
cept  a  general  acknowledgment,  but  I  can  not  forget 


PREFACE. 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


their  courtesy  to  a  stranger.  In  common  with  other 
students  I  received  polite  attentions  during  my  re 
searches  in  Paris  at  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 

In  this  country  I  owe  much  to  the  librarians  of  pub 
lic  libraries  and  their  assistants — too  much  to  allow  me 
to  specify  my  obligations  to  individuals.  At  the  Astor, 
and  at  the  Lenox,  under  its  more  recent  management, 
my  debt  has  been  continual  for  many  years.  Acknowl 
edgments  are  due  to  the  officers  of  the  Boston  Public 
Library,  the  Library  of  Congress,  the  Peabody  Institute 
in  Baltimore,  and  the  libraries  of  the  New  York,  the 
Massachusetts,  the  Pennsylvania,  the  Maryland,  and  the 
Virginia  Historical  Societies.  To  Harvard  College  Li 
brary  and  to  the  New  York  State  Library  I  am  specially 
indebted  ;  from  them  I  have  been  able  to  supplement 
my  own  collection  by  borrowing.  The  Brooklyn  Mer 
cantile  Library  has  granted  me  similar  privileges.  The 
New  York  Mercantile  Library,  on  the  other  hand,  I  have 
not  found  hospitable  to  research. 

To  my  generous  friend  Mr.  Justin  Winsor  I  owe 
thanks  for  many  favors.  Dr.  Thomas  Addis  Emmet 
opened  his  valuable  collection  to  me,  and  the  late  Mr. 
S.  L.  M.  Barlow  showed  me  similar  kindness.  My  friend, 
Mr.  Oscar  S.  Straus,  permitted  me  to  use  at  my  own 
desk  valuable  works  from  his  collection.  There  are 
others  whose  friendly  attentions  can  be  more  fitly  rec 
ognized  in  later  volumes  of  this  series,  and  yet  others 
whom  I  must  beg  to  accept  this  general  but  grateful 
acknowledgment. 

Mr.  W.  W.  Duffield,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Coast 
and  Geodetic  Survey,  supplied  the  artist  with  the  coast 
charts  from  which  the  maps  in  this  volume  were  drawn. 

To  avoid  misapprehension,  it  is  needful  to  say  that 
this  is  not  a  re-issue  of  anything  I  have  heretofore 
produced.  The  lectures  on  the  culture  history  of  the 
United  States  given  at  Columbia  College  and  other  in 
stitutions  were  never  written  or  reported.  The  papers 
on  colonial  life  contributed  to  the  Century  Magazine  in 


Preface. 


XI 


1882,  and  the  years  following,  were  on  a  different  plan 
and  scale  ;  they  have  merely  served  the  purpose  of  pre 
liminary  studies  of  the  general  subject.  To  the  editor 
and  publishers  of  the  Century  Magazine  I  am  obliged 
for  their  courtesy  in  all  affairs  relating  to  my  contract 
with  them,  and  for  an  arrangement  which  enables  me  to 
have  free  use  of  my  material. 

JOSHUA'S  ROCK,  LAKE  GEORGE,  October,  i8g6. 


PREFACE. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK   I. 
RISE   OF    THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  COLONY. 

CHAPTER  THE   FIRST. 

PAGE 

ENGLISH  KNOWLEDGE  AND  NOTION  OF  AMERICA  AT 
THE  PERIOD  OF  SETTLEMENT i 

CHAPTER  THE   SECOND. 

JAMES  RIVER  EXPERIMENTS 25 

CHAPTER  THE  THIRD. 

THE  PROCESSION  OF  MOTIVES 73 

BOOK   II. 

THE  PURITAN  MIGRATION. 

CHAPTER  THE  FIRST. 
RISE  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PURITANISM  08 


CHAPTER  THE  SECOND. 
SEPARATISM  AND  THE  SCROOBY  CHURCH     . 

CHAPTER  THE   THIRD. 

THE  PILGRIM  MIGRATIONS 


141 


CHAPTER  THE   FOURTH. 

THE  GREAT  PURITAN  EXODUS 


1 88 


CONTENTS. 


XIV 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK   III. 

CENTRIFUGAL  FORCES  IN   COLONY-PLANTING. 


CHAPTER  THE  FIRST. 
THE  CATHOLIC  MIGRATION     .... 

CHAPTER   THE    SECOND. 

THE  PROPHET  OF  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM 


PAGE 

220 


266 


CHAPTER  THE  THIRD. 
NEW  ENGLAND  DISPERSIONS 315 


LIST   OF   MAPS. 

(IN  the  coast  line  the  American  maps  follow  the  charts  of  the  United 
States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  ;  the  third  map  conforms  to  the  British 
Ordnance  Survey.) 


FACING 
PAGE 

I 

.         28 
.     149 

•      177 


I.—  Chesapeake  Bay 

II.— James  River 

III.— The  cradle  of  the  Pilgrims 

IV.— Coast  explored  by  the  Pilgrims   .... 

V.— The  colony  at  St.  Mary's 245 

VI. — Massachusetts  Bay  and  Plymouth      .        .        .        .275 

VII.— The  early  settlements  on  Narragansett  Bay        .         .  296 

VIII.— New  England  after  the  dispersions    .        .        .        .343 


BOOK    I. 

RISE  OF  THE   FIRST   ENGLISH   COLONY. 


CHAPTER   THE    FIRST. 

ENGLISH  KNOWLEDGE  AND  NOTIONS  OF  AMERICA 
AT   THE  PERIOD   OF   SETTLEMENT. 

I. 

THE  age  of  Elizabeth  and  James — the  age  of 
Spenser,  of  Shakespeare,  and  of  Bacon — was  a  new 
point  of  departure  in  the  history  of  the  English 
race.  All  the  conditions  excited  men  to  unwonted 
intellectual  activity.  The  art  of  printing  was  yet 
a  modern  invention ;  the  New  World  with  its  nov 
elties  and  unexplained  mysteries  was  a  modern 
discovery ;  and  there  were  endless  discussions  and 
agitations  of  spirit  growing  out  of  the  recent  refor 
mation  in  religion.  Imagination  was  powerfully 
stimulated  by  the  progress  of  American  explora 
tion,  by  the  romantic  adventures  of  the  Spaniards 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  their  dazzling  conquest  of 
new-found  empires  in  Mexico  and  Peru.  It  was 
an  age  of  creation  in  poetry,  in  science,  and  in  re 
ligion,  and  men  of  action  were  everywhere  set  on 
deeds  of  daring.  The  world  had  regained  some 
thing  of  the  vigor  and  spontaneity  of  youth,  but 


of  the  First  Colony. 


the' credulity  an'd  curiosity  of  youth  were  not  want 
ing.  The  mind  of  the  time  accepted  and  reveled  in 
marvelous  stories.  The  stage  plays  of  that  drama- 
loving  age  reflected  the  interest  in  the  supernatu 
ral  and  the  eager  curiosity  about  far-away  coun 
tries.  Books  of  travel  fitted  the  prevailing  taste. 
He  who  could  afford  to  buy  them  regaled  himself 
with  the  great  folios  of  Hakluyt's  Voyages  and 
Purchas  his  Pilgrimes.  General  readers  delighted 
in  little  tracts  and  pamphlets  relating  incidents  of 
far-away  travels,  or  describing  remote  countries 
and  the  peoples  inhabiting  them,  or  the  "  mon 
strous  strange  beasts  "  found  in  lands  beyond  the 
bounds  of  Christendom. 

America  excited  the  most  lively  curiosity  as  a 
world  by  itself  and  the  least  known  of  all  the 
"  four  parts  "  into  which  the  globe  was  then  di 
vided.  There  were  those,  indeed,  who  made  six 
parts  of  the  world  by  adding  an  arctic  continent, 
which  included  Greenland  and  a  vast  southern  land 
supposed  to  stretch  from  Magellan's  Strait  south 
ward  to  the  pole.  It  was  easy  to  believe  in  these 
two  superfluous  continents  ;  they  were  mirages  of 
the  New  World.  Every  great  discovery  excites  ex 
pectation  of  others  like  it.  And  in  a  time  when 
vague  report  or  well-worn  tradition  counted  for 
more  than  observation  or  experimental  knowledge, 
it  was  inevitable  that  current  information  about 
America  should  be  distorted  and  mixed  with  fable. 
In  that  age,  still  pre-Baconian,  men  had  few  stand 
ards  by  which  to  measure  probabilities,  and  to 


English  Notions  of  America. 


those  shut  in  by  the  narrow  limits  of  mediaeval 
knowledge  the  mere  uncovering  of  a  new  conti 
nent  whose  existence  contravened  the  fixed  beliefs 
of  the  ages  was  so  marvelous  that  nothing  told 
about  it  afterward  seemed  incredible. 

The  history  of  American  exploration  is  a  story 
of  delusion  and  mistake.  The  New  World  was 
discovered  because  it  lay  between  Europe  and  the 
East  Indian  Spice  Islands  by  the  westward  route. 
Columbus,  seeking  the  less,  found  the  greater  by 
stumbling  on  it  in  the  dark.  Zuan  Caboto — in 
English,  John  Cabot — who  is  described  by  a  con 
temporary  as  "  a  Venetian  fellow  with  a  fine  mind, 
greatly  skilled  in  navigation,"  discovered  North 
America  in  1497.  But  he  did  not  exult  that  he 
was  the  finder  of  a  vast  and  fertile  continent  in 
\vhich  great  nations  might  germinate,  for  he  be 
lieved  that  his  landfall  at  Cape  Breton  was  within 
the  dominions  of  the  Grand  Cham  of  China,  and 
he  sailed  down  the  coast  again  the  next  year,  "  ever 
with  the  intent  to  find  said  passage  to  India."  It 
was  announced  on  his  return  from  his  first  voyage 
that  Henry  VII  had  "  won  a  part  of  Asia  without 
a  stroke  of  the  sword." 

The  discovery  of  the  Pacific  by  Balboa  in  1513, 
and  the  voyage  of  Magellan's  ship  across  that  ocean 
in  1520,  were  not  sufficient  to  remove  the  illusion 
that  America  was  connected  with  Asia.  The  no 
tion  that  the  New  World  was  an  Asiatic  peninsula 
died  lingeringly  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century ;  but  to  reach  Asia  was  still  the  main  pur- 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 


Note  2. 


Frobisher. 


Frobisher's 
Voyages, 
Hakl.  Soc., 
passim. 


pose  of  western  exploration,  and  America  was  for 
a  long  time  regarded  mainly  as  an  obstruction. 
The  belief  in  a  passage  to  the  Pacific  by  means 
of  some  yet-to-be-discovered  strait  severing  the 
continent  of  America,  survived  far  into  the  seven 
teenth  century,  and  the  hope  of  coming  by  some 
short  cut  into  a  rich  commerce  with  the  Orient  led 
to  a  prying  exploration  of  all  the  inlets,  bays,  and 
estuaries  on  the  American  coast  and  so  promoted 
discovery,  but  it  retarded  settlement  by  blinding 
men  to  the  value  of  the  New  World. 

II. 

Adventure  by  sea  became  a  favorite  road  to 
renown  for  ambitious  Englishmen  in  the  time  of 
Elizabeth,  and  the  belief  in  a  passage  through  or 
round  North  America  grew  into  a  superstition. 
The  discovery  of  this  strait  seemed,  in  the  phrase 
of  George  Beste,  a  writer  of  the  time,  "  the  onely 
thing  of  the  world  that  was  left  undone  whereby 
a  notable  mind  might  be  made  famous  and  fortu 
nate."  Sir  Martin  Frobisher,  who  is  reckoned  by 
Camden  "among  the  famousest  men  of  our  age  for 
counsell  and  glory  gotten  at  sea,"  made  three  voy 
ages  in  1576  and  the  following  years  to  that  part 
of  the  American  coast  almost  under  the  arctic 
circle.  He  desisted  from  the  attempt  to  get  to 
China  by  an  arctic  channel  only  when  he  had  in 
volved  the  "  venturers  "  or  stockholders  associated 
with  him  in  heavy  debts,  and  spent  the  fortune  of 
his  wife  and  stepchildren,  to  whom  '*  glory  gotten 


English  Notions  of  America. 


at  sea  "  must  have  been  insufficient  compensation. 
"  Sir  Martin  Frobisher  whome  God  forgive  "  is  the 
phrase  in  which  he  is  spoken  of  by  his  wife. 

In  the  year  of  Frobisher's  first  voyage,  Sir 
Humphrey  Gilbert  issued  a  treatise  to  prove  that 
there  was  a  way  to  the  East  Indies  round  North 
America.  This  he  demonstrated  by  a  hydra- 
headed  argument  constructed  after  the  elaborate 
fashion  of  that  unscientific  age,  proving  the  exist 
ence  of  a  northwest  passage,  first  by  authority, 
secondly  by  reason,  thirdly  by  experience  of  sun 
dry  men's  travels,  and  fourthly  by  circumstance. 
Not  content  with  getting  to  China  by  logic,  and 
nothing  daunted  by  Frobisher's  brilliant  failure, 
Gilbert  mortgaged  his  estate  that  he  might  engage 
in  attempts  yet  more  disastrous  than  Frobisher's, 
and  lost  his  life  during  his  second  voyage,  in  1584. 

About  this  time  there  appeared  on  the  scene 
the  famous  geographer,  Richard  Hakluyt,  one  of 
those  men  that  exert  a  marked  influence  in  favor  of 
a  new  movement  mainly  by  ardor  and  industry. 
Hakluyt's  fervor  was  akin  to  enthusiasm,  his  be 
lief  of  every  story  favorable  to  projects  for  colo 
nization,  and  his  unwavering  faith  in  the  projects 
themselves  bordered  on  flat  credulity.  To  men  of 
his  own  time  his  tireless  advocacy  of  American  ex 
ploration  and  colony-planting  must  have  seemed 
irksome  hobby-riding.  But  he  was  the  indispen 
sable  forerunner  of  colonization.  "  Your  Mr.  Hak 
luyt  hath  served  for  a  very  good  trumpet,"  says 
Sidney.  Believing  in  everything  American  as  un- 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


vvaveringly  as  if  his  soul's  salvation  depended  on 
his  faith,  he  believed  in  nothing  more  sublimely 
than  in  a  passage  to  the  "  South  Sea  "  or  Pacific 
Ocean.  He  seized  on  every  vague  intimation  of 
ignorant  map-makers,  on  every  suspicion  of  an 
explorer,  on  every  fond  tale  of  an  Indian  that 
tended  to  lend  support  to  the  theory  in  hand.  All 
evidence  was  of  equal  weight  in  his  scales,  pro 
vided  it  lay  on  the  affirmative  side  of  the  balance. 
It  mattered  little  to  him  where  his  witnesses  placed 
this  elusive  passage.  In  Hakluyt's  mind  it  was 
ubiquitous.  The  Pacific  is  now  "  on  the  backside  " 
of  Montreal  Island,  and  the  great  Laurentian  lakes 
suffer  a  sea  change ;  now  it  is  reached  by  a  river 
flowing  three  months  to  the  southward — that  is, 
the  Mississippi.  Then  the  much-sought  strait  is 
carried  northward  on  the  authority  of  an  old  map 
— "  a  great  old  round  carde  " — shown  him  "  by  the 
King  of  Portingall."  But  he  had  also  seen  "  a 
mightie  large  old  mappe  in  parchment "  which 
showed,  as  far  south  as  latitude  40°,  a  little  neck 
of  land  "  much  like  the  streyte  neck  or  Isthmus  of 
Darienna."  He  had  seen  the  same  isthmus  on  an 
other  old  map  "  with  the  sea  joynninge  hard  on 
both  sides  as  it  doth  on  Panama."  In  a  paper 
meant  for  private  use,  he  expresses  solicitude  that 
the  nearness  of  the  Pacific  to  Florida  shall  not  be 
come  known  too  commonly.  Many  years  later  an 
injunction  was  granted  in  Holland  forbidding  a 
publisher  to  insert  in  a  map  the  newly  discovered 
channel  into  the  South  Sea. 


English  Notions  of  America. 


III. 

Both  Frobisher  and  Gilbert  made  ineffectual 
attempts  to  plant  colonies  in  the  new  lands,  but 
colony-planting  held  a  place  in  their  minds  quite 
secondary  to  the  search  for  the  South  Sea  in  the 
north  and  the  finding  of  gold.  It  was  only  when 
the  large  and  lucid  mind  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh 
took  up  the  subject  seriously  that  the  settlement  of 
an  agricultural  colony  became  for  a  while  the  real 
object  of  American  voyages.  Ralegh  sent  no  men 
to  the  arctic  or  to  the  wintry  shores  of  Newfound 
land,  as  Frobisher  and  Gilbert  had  done.  He 
turned  to  milder  latitudes,  and  dispatched  his  ex 
plorers  in  1584,  and  his  colonists  in  1585,  to  the 
coast  of  what  is  now  North  Carolina. 

But  the  ever-mischievous  South  Sea  delusion 
did  not  vanish  when  the  period  of  colonization  was 
reached.  Ralph  Lane,  the  governor  of  Ralegh's 
first  colony  on  Roanoke  Island,  having  inquired 
perhaps  for  that  western  sea  which  Hakluyt  had 
seen  "on  the  mightie  old  mappe  in  parchment," 
understood  the  inventive  savages  to  say  that  the 
Roanoke  River  sprang  from  a  rock  so  near  to  a 
sea  that  the  waves  in  storm  often  dashed  into  this 
fountain,  making  the  river  brackish  for  some  dis 
tance  below.  That  the  story  might  be  more  inter 
esting,  they  added  that  there  was  gold  there,  and 
that  the  walls  of  a  town  in  that  land  were  made  of 
pearls.  This  is  what  the  white  men  fancied  the 
Indians  said  ;  but  whatever  they  said  was  spoken  in 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 


Note  3. 


Lane's  Ac 
count  in 
Hakl.  III. 


Note  4. 


Seeking 
the  Pacific 
on  James 
River. 


a  tongue  of  which  Lane's  men  had  but  the  most 
scanty  knowledge,  if  indeed  it  were  not  given 
mainly  by  signs.  Nothing  dispirited  by  the  ex 
travagance  of  these  tales,  Lane  and  some  of  his 
men  set  out  to  immortalize  and  enrich  themselves — 
like  a  company  of  children  running  after  the  pot  of 
gold  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow.  While  the  crafty 
Indians  were  plotting  the  destruction  of  the  colo 
nists  left  behind,  the  governor  and  his  followers 
pursued  their  quest  until  they  were  obliged  to  eat 
their  dogs,  made  palatable  by  seething  with  a 
dressing  of  sassafras  leaves.  They  returned,  half 
famished  and  wholly  disappointed,  just  in  time  to 
rescue  the  colony  from  destruction.  But  faith  is 
faith,  and  despite  his  severe  experience  Lane  went 
back  to  England  believing  that  the  Roanoke  rose 
near  to  the  Bay  of  Mexico  "  that  openeth  out  into 
the  South  Sea."  The  map  which  the  colonists 
brought  with  them  when  they  abandoned  the  coun 
try  in  1586  handed  down  the  delusion,  in  another 
form,  by  showing  a  strait  leading  from  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Port  Royal  into  a  body  of  water  to  the 
westward. 

IV. 

Twenty  years  after  the  return  of  Ralegh's  first 
colonists  the  Jamestown  company  was  sent  to 
plant  the  germ  of  an  English-speaking  nation  in 
North  America.  Beginning  with  the  first  voyage 
of  Columbus,  the  search  for  a  route  through  Amer 
ica  had  lasted  a  hundred  and  fourteen  years.  No 


English  Notions  of  America. 


passage  north  of  Magellan's  Strait  had  been  found, 
yet  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  such  a  water-way 
remained  a  part  of  the  geographical  creed  of  the 
time.  The  Jamestown  emigrants  were  official 
ly  instructed  to  explore  that  branch  of  any  river 
that  lay  toward  the  northwest,  perhaps  because 
the  charmed  latitude  of  40°  might  thus  be  reached. 
It  was  in  carrying  out  this  instruction  that  Cap 
tain  John  Smith  came  to  grief  at  the  hands  of 
the  Indians  while  looking  for  the  Pacific  in  the 
swamps  of  the  Chickahominy.  Smith  rarely  mixed 
his  abounding  romance  with  his  geography ;  he  is 
as  sober  and  trustworthy  in  topographical  descrip 
tion  and  in  map-making  as  he  is  imaginative  in 
narration.  But  Smith  was  at  this  time  under  the 
influence  of  the  prevailing  delusion,  and  he  hoped 
that  his  second  voyage  up  the  Chesapeake  would 
lead  him  into  the  Pacific.  His  belief  in  a  pas 
sage  to  the  westward  in  latitude  40°,  just  be 
yond  the  northward  limit  of  his  own  explora 
tions,  he  communicated  to  his  friend  Henry  Hud 
son,  who  was  so  moved  by  it  that  he  sailed  to 
.*  j 

America  in  1609  in  violation  of  his  orders,  and  in 
seeking  the  strait  to  the  South  Sea  penetrated  the 
solitudes  of  the  picturesque  river  that  bears  his 
name.  The  explorer  Dermer  was  intent  on  win 
ning  immortality  by  finding  a  passage  to  the  Pa 
cific  when,  in  1619,  he  was  storm-driven  into  Long 
Island  Sound.  At  Manhattan  Island,  or  thereabout, 
he  got  information  from  the  obliging  Indians  that 
made  plain  his  way  to  the  Orient.  He  was  very- 


10 


Rise  of  tJie  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Note  5. 


Sandys's 
plan. 


Note  6. 


Luke  Fox, 


Northwest. 
Fox,  p.  172. 


secretive  about  this  route,  which,  however,  seems 
to  have  lain  through  Delaware  Bay. 

A  false  notion  once  generally  accepted  is  able 
to  live  in  some  ghostly  shape  after  the  breath  is 
out  of  its  body.  The  hope  of  a  passage  to  the  Pa 
cific  by  means  of  a  strait  and  the  belief  in  a  narrow 
isthmus  in  latitude  40°  could  not  long  survive  the 
increase  of  knowledge  that  followed  the  settlement 
of  Virginia  and  Captain  Smith's  explorations.  But 
sixteen  years  after  the  landing  at  Jamestown,  when 
these  two  geographical  jack-o'-lanterns  had  ceased 
to  flicker,  the  poet  George  Sandys,  who  was  sec 
retary  of  the  colony,  wrote  that  he  was  ready  to 
venture  his  life  in  finding  a  way  to  the  South  Sea, 
but  this  way  was  now  to  be  by  an  overland  route. 
About  the  same  time  Henry  Briggs,  the  famous 
Savile  lecturer  at  Oxford,  proved  to  the  satisfac 
tion  of  many  that  the  rivers  running  westward 
from  the  Virginia  mountains  must  reach  the  Pacific 
in  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  One  Marma- 
duke  Parkinson,  an  explorer  sailing  in  the  Potomac, 
confirmed  the  theory  of  thejea^ne^  mathematician 
by  discovering  in  the  house  of  a  chief  a  "  China 
Boxe,"  whatever  that  may  have  been.  In  1631 
Luke  Fox  set  sail  by  the  northwest,  carrying  a  let 
ter  from  Charles  I  addressed  "  to  the  Emperor  of 
Japan,"  which  he  probably  was  not  able  to  deliver. 
In  1634  Captain  Thomas  Yong  got  as  far  as  the 
falls  of  the  Delaware  in  the  endeavor  to  go  through 
the  continent  in  latitude  40°.  The  strait  and  isth 
mus  and  northwest  passage  having  failed,  Yong 


English  Notions  of  America. 


II 


was  content  to  go  by  fresh  water  till  he  should 
reach  a  Mediterranean  Sea  in  the  heart  of  America, 
which  he  believed  to  open  into  both  the  "  North 
Ocean  "  and  the  South  Sea.  As  the  century  ad 
vanced  the  fresh-water  route  had  in  turn  to  be 
finally  abandoned,  and  seekers  after  the  Pacific 
were  fain  to  betake  themselves  to  dry-shod  travel, 
and  even  to  mountain-climbing,  as  George  Sandys 
had  proposed.  A  Colonel  Catlet  is  mentioned  who 
reached  the  Alleghanies  in  the  endeavor  to  find  a 
river  flowing  westward,  but  he  was  daunted  by 
what  seemed  to  him  almost  impassable  ranges  of 
mountains  that  barred  his  way.  Over  these  "  rocky 
hills  and  sandy  desarts  "  scarce  a  bird  was  seen  to 
fly.  In  1669,  Lederer,  a  German  surveyor,  set  out 
from  Virginia  on  a  similar  futile  exploration.  As 
late  as  1700  the  well-informed  Lawson  speaks  hope 
fully  of  the  proximity  of  the  Pacific  to  North  Caro 
lina.  This  fallacy  had  prompted  many  desperate 
adventures,  and  had  been  the  cause  of  many  impor 
tant  discoveries,  in  the  two  centuries  that  it  held 
possession  of  men's  minds.  It  reached  its  last  at 
tenuation  in  1765,  when  the  public  prints  announced 
that  large  boats  were  fitting  out  at  Quebec  to  try 
the  whale-fishing  in  Lake  Ontario,  and  that  "  they 
have  hopes  of  finding  a  communication  by  water 
with  the  western  ocean,  founded  on  the  favorable 
reports  of  some  Indians,  who  inform  that  a  river 
runs  westward  many  hundreds  of  miles  as  large  as 
the  Mississippi." 


CHAP.  I. 

Weston 
Documents 
45  and  47 
and  if. 


Catlet  and 
Lederer. 

Glover, 
in  Phil. 
Trans.,  xi, 
626.  Com  p. 
Perfect 
Descr.  of 
Va.,  1649, 
and  Leder- 
er's  Voy 
age. 

Lawson's 
Carolina, 

47- 


Scot's 
Magazine, 
1765.  page 
161. 


12 


Rise  of  the  First  Colon}'. 


BOOK  i. 


Gold- 
hunting. 


Hakluyt. 
Pref .  to 
Va.,  mag 
nified. 


Pilgrim 
age,  795- 


V. 

As  the  mistake  made  by  Columbus  had  left  for 
heritage  an  almost  ineradicable  passion  for  the  dis 
covery  of  a  westward  sea  way  to  Japan  and  China, 
so  the  vast  treasure  of  gold  and  silver  drawn  by 
the  Spaniards  from  Mexico  and  Peru  produced  a 
belief  in  the  English  mind  that  a  colony  planted  at 
any  place  on  the  American  coast  might  find  gold. 
Here,  again,  the  undoubting  Hakluyt  and  other 
writers  after  him  were  ready  with  learned  conclu 
sions  balancing  on  the  tight  rope  of  very  slender 
premises.  If  an  Indian  had  been  seen  wearing  a 
piece  of  copper  that  "  bowed  easily,"  this  flexibility 
proved  it  to  be  tarnished  gold.  If  a  savage  seemed 
to  say  in  his  idiom,  or  by  gestures  and  other  signs, 
something  which  the  puzzled  newcomers  took  to 
signify  that  in  a  country  farther  on  the  copper  was 
too  soft  for  use,  or  that  it  was  yellow,  or  that  it 
had  a  good  luster,  what  further  evidence  could  an 
ingenious  writer  desire  of  the  existence  of  the  pre 
cious  metal  in  that  country  ?  Purchas,  the  suc 
cessor  of  Hakluyt  in  geographical  research,  ex 
plains  the  divine  purpose  in  thus  endowing  a 
heathen  land  with  gold,  which  is  that  the  Indian 
race  "  as  a  rich  bride,  though  withered  and  de 
formed,  .  .  .  might  find  many  suitors  for  love  of 
her  portion/'  and  thus  the  pagans  be  converted. 
But  Purchas  filches  both  the  simile  and  the  pious 
thought  from  Herrera,  who  in  turn  probably  pil 
fered  it  with  many  better  things  from  the  good 


English  Notions  of  America. 


Las  Casas.  Purchas  also  speaks  with  more  opti 
mism  than  elegance  of  the  u  silver  bowels  and 
golden  entrails  of  the  hills,"  as  though  one  had  but 
to  dig  into  the  first  mountain  to  be  enriched. 

Frobisher  brought  home  from  sub-arctic  islands 
what  his  clumsy  assayers  avouched  to  be 


cure."  Refining  works  were  erected  for  this  stuff 
at  Deptford  to  no  profit,  and  to  this  day  the  in 
quisitive  student  is  not  able  to  ascertain  from  the 
conflicting  reports  whether  there  was  any  gold  in 
the  ore  or  not.  The  main  causes  of  the  suffering 
at  Jamestown  during  the  first  winter  were  the 
waste  of  time  and  the  consumption  of  supplies 
while  lading  the  ships  with  the  glittering  "  dust 
mica  "  which  is  so  abundant  in  the  Virginia  sands. 
The  worthlessness  of  this  cargo  could  not  weaken 
the  hopes  of  those  alchemists  who  were  able  to 
produce  gold  merely  by  the  use  of  arguments.  The 
mines  in  Virginia  moved  farther  west.  It  wanted 
only  that  explorers  should  reach  the  mountains.  In 
spite  of  the  sickness  that  wasted  the  colony  in  1610, 
Lord  De  la  Warr  sent  an  expedition  to  dig  gold 
on  the  upper  James,  but  the  warlike  up-river  tribes 
soon  drove  the  prospectors  back.  In  1634,  Sir  John 
Harvey  sent  another  body  of  men  on  the  same 
fool's  errand,  though  there  had  not  been  found  in 
all  the  years  preceding  a  particle  of  tangible  evi 
dence  that  gold  existed  in  Virginia.  But  on  the 
James,  as  on  the  Hudson,  the  glistering  pigment 
with  which  the  Indians  besmeared  their  faces  on 
occasions  of  display  was  believed  to  contain  gold, 


CHAP.  I. 


Frobish- 
er's  gold. 


Early 
Virginia 
gold-hunt 
ing. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 
Note  7. 

Fact  and 
fable 
about 
America. 


Ingram's 
story. 


and   the   places   of   its   procurement  were   sought 
with  ludicrous  secrecy. 

The  unfaltering  faith  in  the  existence  of  abun 
dant  gold  on  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America 
could  not  have  subsisted  on  thin  air  so  long  if  it 
had  not  been  stimulated  by  the  almost  fabulous 
wealth  drawn  from  South  America  by  Spain.  It 
had  received  encouragement  also  from  the  tales 
told  by  adventurers  returned  from  America,  who 
seem  to  have  thought  it  necessary  to  bring  back 
stories  that  would  match  in  some  degree  the  preva 
lent  beliefs  about  the  New  World.  The  earliest 
but  one  of  all  the  documents  relating  to  America 
preserved  among  the  British  state  papers  is  the 
statement  of  one  David  or  Davy  Ingram.  With  a 
hundred  other  luckless  seamen  he  was  put  ashore 
in  Mexico  by  Sir  John  Hawkins,  because  the  ship 
lacked  provisions.  Ingram,  traveling  from  tribe  to 
tribe,  achieved  the  notable  feat  of  crossing  the  con 
tinent  in  a  year.  In  1569  he  embarked  on  a  French 
ship  that  he  found  near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John 
River  in  what  is  now  the  province  of  New  Bruns 
wick.  It  was  eleven  years  later  that  Davy  Ingram, 
at  home  in  England,  made  his  statement,  and  the 
sailor's  story  had  by  that  time  gained  much,  per 
haps,  by  frequent  telling  to  wonder-loving  listeners. 
Sometimes  he  relates  facts  with  sobriety,  speaking 
the  truth  by  relapse,  it  may  be ;  again,  he  seems  to 
be  repeating  tales  told  him  by  the  savages,  who 
were  habitual  marvel-mongers,  or  weaving  into 
the  account  of  what  he  had  seen  legends  common 


Rnglish  Notions  of  America. 


in  the  folklore  about  America  that  had  grown 
up  in  Europe  ;  or  perchance  he  only  falls  into  an 
old  forecastle  habit  of  incontinent  lying  without 
provocation.  The  American  women  are  described 
as  "  wearing  great  plates  of  gold  covering  their 
whole  bodies  like  armor.  ...  In  every  cottage 
pearls  are  to  be  found,  and  in  some  houses  a  peck  " 
— an  assertion  that  had  a  grain  of  truth  in  it,  since 
the  sailor  no  doubt  mistook  wampum  beads  for 
pearls.  Fireflies,  in  this  old  tar's  exalted  mem 
ory,  are  "  fire  dragons,  which  make  the  air  very  red 
as  they  fly,"  while  the  buffalo  appears  as  an  animal 
"  as  big  as  two  of  our  oxen."  The  streets  in  one 
"  city  "  are  broader  than  London  streets,  which  we 
may  readily  believe.  The  banqueting  houses  are 
built  of  crystal,  "  with  pillars  of  massie  silver,  some 
of  gold."  This  is  a  fine  example  of  the  manner  of 
a  mind  afflicted  with  the  vice  of  exaggeration  ; 
crystal  becomes  silver  in  the  next  breath,  and  sil 
ver  is  as  instantly  transmuted  to  gold.  All  that 
optimistic  projectors  sought  in  America — gold,  sil 
ver,  pearls  by  the  peck,  and  great  abundance  of 
silkworms — are  obligingly  supplied  in  Ingram's 
narrative.  Such  tales  impressed  the  imagination 
in  a  romantic  and  uncritical  age. 

VI. 

The  interest  in  America  was  heightened  by 
popular  curiosity  regarding  the  Indians.  The 
American  savages  were  sometimes  treated  as  sun- 
worshipers,  but  they  were  more  commonly  thought 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  8. 


Indian 
devil- 
worship. 


i6 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


to  be  worshipers  of  devils.  The  prevailing  belief  in 
witchcraft,  divination,  and  abounding-  evil  spirits 
rendered  it  easy  for  Europeans  to  accept  the  Indian 
deities  as  supernatural  beings,  and  to  credit  the  pre 
tensions  of  the  powwows,  or  Indian  priests,  to  give 
knowledge  of  distant  or  future  events,  to  heal  the 
sick,  and  even  to  bring  rain  in  time  of  drought.  But 
it  was  observed  at  Plymouth  that  when  the  Pilgrims 
prayed  for  rain  it  fell  gently,  and  that  the  rain  pro 
cured  by  the  Indian  conjurers  was  violent  and  de 
structive — a  rain  with  something  devilish  about  it. 
According  to  writers  of  the  time,  the  demons  wor 
shiped  by  the  savages  were  able  to  materialize 
themselves  on  great  occasions,  appearing  to  their 
votaries  in  some  beastly  form.  This  belief  in  In 
dian  devil-worship  fitted  well  with  the  religious 
faith  of  the  period,  which  can  hardly  be  described 
as  anything  but  a  sort  of  Manichasism  dividing  the 
government  of  the  universe  almost  equally  be 
tween  good  and  evil  powers.  Religionists  of  all 
schools  desired  to  convert  these  subjects  of  Satan, 
not  from  those  philanthropic  motives  that  are  main 
considerations  in  modern  propagandism,  but  be 
cause  their  conversion  would  glorify  God,  and  yet 
more  because  it  would  despite  the  devil.  Some 
times  the  religious  motive  was  incongruously  sup 
ported  by  hopes  of  commercial  advantage.  The 
navigator  Davis  wrote  to  Secretary  Walsingham 
that  if  the  Indians  "  were  once  brought  over  to  the 
Christian  faith  they  might  soon  be  brought  to  rel 
ish  a  more  civilized  kind  of  life  and  be  thereby  in- 


English  Notions  of  America. 


duced  to  take  off  great  quantities  of  our  coarser 
woolen  manufactures." 

The  early  explorers  made  a  practice  of  kidnap 
ing  Indians  and  transporting  them  to  England, 
where  the  sight  of  barbarians  without  doublet  or 
hose  quickened  the  interest  in  projects  for  colo 
nization  and  adventure.  In  our  age  of  commercial 
activity  and  extended  geographical  knowledge  one 
can  form  but  a  weak  conception  of  the  excitement 
produced  by  the  sight  of  "  the  Indian  man  and 
woman,"  no  doubt  Esquimaux,  brought  by  Fro- 
bisher.  Portraits  of  these  rarities  were  made  for 
the  king  and  queen  and  others.  In  1605  Wey- 
mouth  brought  from  the  coast  of  Maine  five  kid 
napped  Indians,  "  with  all  their  bows  and  arrows  " 
and  two  beautiful  birch-bark  canoes.  "  This  acci 
dent,"  exclaimed  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  "  hath 
been  the  means  of  putting  life  into  all  our  planta 
tions."  Some  of  the  savages  captured  at  various 
times  were  exhibited  for  money,  and  one  perhaps 
was  shown  after  he  was  dead  ;  at  least  we  may  ven 
ture  to  conjecture  so  much  from  Shakespeare's 
jeer  in  The  Tempest  at  the  idle  curiosity  of  the 
crowd.  In  England,  says  Trinculo,  "  any  strange 
beast  makes  a  man.  When  they  will  not  give  a 
doit  to  relieve  a  lame  beggar,  they  will  lay  out  ten 
to  see  a  dead  Indian."  This  interest  in  outlandish 
savages  no  doubt  suggested  to  the  poet  the  crea 
tion  of  the  monster  Caliban,  who  probably  seemed 
a  realistic  figure  to  the  imagination  of  that  age. 


CHAP.  I. 


Indians 
exhibited. 


Rosier's 
True  Rela 
tion. 


Tempest, 


i8 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


VII. 

The  animals  of  the  new  continent  excited  the 
wonder  of  the  people  of  Europe  and  increased  the 
interest  in  America.  Regarding  them,  also,  the 
most  extravagant  stories  were  easily  credited.  It 
was  recorded  in  the  sober  Latin  of  Peter  Martyr 
that  the  advance  of  Cabot's  ships  was  retarded  by 
the  multitude  of  codfish  on  the  Newfoundland 
coast,  and  that  the  bears  were  accustomed  to  catch 
these  fish  in  their  claws.  It  is  hard  to  recognize 
the  familiar  opossum  in  the  description  by  Pur- 
chas  :  "  A  monstrous  deformed  beast,  whose  fore 
part  resembleth  a  fox,  the  hinder  part  an  ape,  ex 
cepting  the  feet,  which  are  like  a  man's ;  beneath 
her  belly  she  hath  a  receptacle  like  a  purse,  where 
she  bestows  her  young  until  they  can  shift  for 
themselves."  The  humming  bird  was  believed  to 
be  a  cross  between  a  fly  and  a  bird.  The  Hudson 
River  Dutch  settlers  went  further,  and  named  it 
simply  "  the  West  Indian  bee."  These  dainty 
creatures  were  prepared  for  exportation  to  Europe 
in  New  Amsterdam  by  drying  them,  in  Barbadoes 
by  filling  them  with  sand.  They  were  accounted 
"  pretty  delicacies  for  ladies,  who  wore  them  at 
their  breasts  and  girdles."  Evelyn  saw  two  pre 
served  as  great  rarities  at  Oxford,  in  1564.  A  New 
England  versifier  extols 

The  humbird  for  some  queen's  rich  cage  more  fit 
Than  in  the  vacant  wilderness  to  sit. 

Flying   squirrels,    when   brought    into    English 


English  Notions  of  America. 


parks  in  1608,  were  the  occasion  of  much  wonder 
ing  excitement.  King  James  begged  for  one  of 
them,  like  a  spoiled  child.  The  skins  of  muskrats 
were  esteemed  for  their  odor  and  were  brought  to 
England  "  as  rich  presents."  It  was  thought  that 
musk  might  be  extracted  from  this  animal.  Ha- 
riot,  the  learned  man  of  Ralegh's  first  colony,  fan 
cied  that  the  civet  cat  would  prove  profitable  to 
settlers  in  America,  but  his  words  indicate  that  he 
had  been  misled  by  traces  of  the  skunk,  whose  per 
fume  has  never  yet  come  into  request.  Speaking 
of  the  "  civet  catte,"  he  says,  "  in  our  travails  there 
was  found  one  to  have  been  killed  by  a  salvage  or 
inhabitant ;  and  in  many  places  the  smell  where 
one  had  lately  beene  before." 

The  raccoon,  the  "  aroughcun  "  of  the  Virginia 
Indians,  being  a  plantigrade,  was  esteemed  a  mon 
key  ;  the  peccaries  were  called  the  wild  hogs  of 
America,  and  were  thought  to  have  "their  navels 
on  the  ridge  of  their  backs."  Somewhere  in  the 
region  of  the  Hudson  River  a  beast  is  described  as 
having  a  horn  in  the  middle  of  his  forehead,  from 
which  it  would  appear  that  the  unicorn  on  the 
royal  coat  of  arms  may  have  been  found  running 
at  large.  It  is  not  easy  to  account  for  the  "  camel 
mare,"  reported  to  have  been  seen  about  three 
hundred  miles  west  from  the  coast  of  New  Jersey, 
unless  it  belonged  to  the  genus  Incubus.  The  be 
wildering  number  of  new  creatures  found  in  Amer 
ica  troubled  the  European  scholars  of  that  day, 
who  were  ever  theological.  They  were  puzzled 


CHAP.  I. 


De  Bry's 
Harlot,  p. 
10. 


Note  10. 


20 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


An  age  of 
romance 
and  adven 
ture. 


to  get  so  many  four-footed  beasts  and  creeping 
things  into  the  compass  of  Noah's  ark.  Mercator, 
the  Flemish  geographer,  avoided  this  difficult  em 
barkation  by  concluding  that  America  had  been 
excepted  from  the  Deluge. 

VIII. 

Thus  grotesque  and  misleading  were  many  of 
the  glimpses  that  Europe  got  of  the  New  World 
as  the  mists  of  ignorance  slowly  lifted  from  it. 
These  erratic  notions  regarding  America  give  one 
an  insight  into  the  character  of  the  English  peo 
ple  at  the  period  of  discovery  and  colony-plant 
ing.  Credulity  and  the  romantic  spirit  dwell  to 
gether.  The  imagination  in  such  an  age  usurped 
the  place  of  discrimination,  and  the  wonderful  be 
came  the  probable.  The  appetite  for  the  marvel 
ous  fostered  exaggeration  ;  every  man  who  had 
sailed  in  foreign  seas  thought  it  shame  not  to  tell 
of  wonders.  The  seventeenth  century  indeed  be 
trayed  a  consciousness  of  its  own  weakness  in  a 
current  proverb,  "  Travelers  lie  by  license."  His 
tory  and  fiction  had  not  yet  been  separated.  Like 
every  other  romantic  age,  the  period  of  Elizabeth 
and  James  was  prodigal  of  daring  ad  venture  ;  every 
notable  man  aspired  to  be  the  hero  of  a  tale.  Eng 
lish  beginnings  in  America  were  thus  made  in  a 
time  abounding  in  bold  enterprises — enterprises 
brilliant  in  conception,  but  in  the  execution  of 
which  there  was  often  a  lack  of  foresight  and  prac 
tical  wisdom. 


English  Notions  of  America. 


21 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

See  the  careful  and  learned  discussion  of  the  Voyages  of 
Cabot  by  the  late  Charles  Deane,  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,  vol.  iii.  Mr.  Deane  effectually  de 
stroys  the  delusion  which  so  long  gave  the  credit  of  this  dis 
covery,  or  a  part  of  it,  to  Sebastian  Cabot,  the  son  of  the  real 
discoverer.  Mr.  Henry  Harrisse,  in  John  Cabot,  the  Discoverer  of 
America,  and  in  an  earlier  work,  Jean  et  Sebastien  Cabot,  etc., 
reaches  the  same  conclusion.  He  even  doubts  Sebastian's  pres 
ence  in  the  expeditions  of  his  father,  John  Cabot,  etc.,  p.  48. 

Yet  George  Beste,  who  sailed  with  Frobisher,  says  :  "  Now 
men  neede  no  more  contentiously  strive  for  roume  to  build  an 
house  on,  or  for  a  little  turffe  of  ground,  .  .  .  when  great  countreys 
and  whole  worldes  offer  and  reache  out  themselves  to  them  that 
will  first  voutsafe  to  possesse,  inhabite,  and  till  them."  These 
countries,  he  says,  "  are  fertile  to  bring  forth  all  manner  of  corne 
and  grayne,  infinite  sortes  of  land  cattell,  as  horse,  elephantes, 
kine,  sheepe,  great  varietie  of  flying  fowles  of  the  ayre,  as  phes- 
ants,  partridge,  quayle,  popingeys,  ostridges,  etc.,  infinite  kinds 
of  fruits,  as  almonds,  dates,  quinces,  pomegranats,  oringes,  etc., 
holesome,  medicinable,  and  delectable "  (Frobisher's  Voyages, 
Hakluyt  Society,  p.  38). 

Ralegh,  in  his  History  of  the  World,  book  i,  chap,  viii,  sec. 
xv,  has  an  interesting  digression  on  the  danger  of  trusting  such 
communications,  and  he  relates  an  anecdote  of  misapprehension 
by  this  very  party  sent  under  Grenville  and  Lane:  "The  same 
happened  among  the  English,  which  I  sent  under  Sir  Richard 
Greeneville  to  inhabit  Virginia.  For  when  some  of  my  people 
asked  the  name  of  that  country,  one  of  the  savages  answered, 
'  Wingandacon,'  which  is  as  much  as  to  say,  as,  '  You  wear  good 
deaths'  or  gay  cloaths."  From  this  answer  it  came  that  the 
coast  of  North  Carolina  was  called  "  Wingandacon,"  or,  in  its 
Latinized  form,  Wingindacoa,  while  the  chief,  or  "  king,"  of  the 
country  appears  in  the  narratives  of  the  time  as  Wingina.  Ralegh 
says  that  Yucatan  means  merely  "  What  say  you  ?  "  and  that  Peru 
got  its  name  from  a  similar  mistake. 

I  found  the  original  of  this  map  among  the  drawings  made  by 
John  White  in  the  Grenville  Collection  in  the  British  Museum. 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  i, 
page  3. 


Note  2, 
page  4. 


Note  3, 
page  8. 


Note  4, 
page  8. 


22 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


It  was  reproduced  to  accompany  a  paper  of  mine  on  the  Vir 
ginia  Colony  in  the  Century  Magazine  of  November,  1882.  It 
excited  interest  among  scholars,  as  it  was  supposed  to  have  been 
previously  unknown.  A  copy  was  afterward  found,  however,  in 
the  collection  made  by  Dr.  Kohl  for  the  State  Department  at 
Washington.  The  drawings  in  the  Sloane  MSS.,  British  Museum, 
attributed  to  John  White  by  Dr.  E.  E.  Hale,  in  the  Transactions 
of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  iv,  21,  are  not  White's 
originals.  The  latter  are  in  the  Grenville  Collection.  See  my 
comparison  of  the  two  in  The  Nation  of  April  23,  1891. 

As  late  as  December  5,  1621,  in  a  letter  from  the  Virginia 
Company  to  Governor  Wyatt,  these  words  occur :  "  The  Con 
jectures  of  the  Southwest  Passage  and  the  piece  of  copper  which 
you  sent  us  gladly  saw  and  heard."  This  long-surviving  desire 
for  a  short  passage  to  the  East  Indies  is  traceable  to  the  passion 
that  existed  in  Europe  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  for 
spices,  and  this  no  doubt  came  from  the  gross  forms  of  cookery 
in  that  time.  Anderson's  Commerce,  sub  anno  1504,  cites  Guicci- 
ardini  on  the  great  quantities  of  spices  used,  and  adds  :  "  For  in 
those  days  the  people  of  Europe  were  much  fonder  of  spices  in 
their  cookery,  etc.,  than  they  have  been  in  later  times."  The  rise 
in  the  price  of  commodities  in  Elizabeth's  time  may  have  been 
only  apparent,  but  it  promoted  voyages  looking  to  the  extension 
of  commerce.  Compare  Holinshed,  i,  274. 

Waterhouse's  Declaration  of  Virginia,  1622,  a  rare  tract.  Also 
Purchas,  iii,  892,  893,  where  these  words  are  quoted  from  Briggs  : 
"  The  Indian  Ocean,  which  we  commonly  call  the  South  Sea, 
which  lyeth  on  the  West  and  Northwest  Side  of  Virginia,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  mountains  beyond  our  Falls  [of  James  River] 
and  openeth  a  free  and  faire  passage,  not  only  to  China,  Japan, 
and  the  Moluccas,  but  also  to  New  Spaine,  Peru,  and  Chili,  and 
those  rich  countries  of  Terra  Australis  not  as  yet  discovered."  It 
is  one  of  many  marks  of  practical  sagacity  in  Captain  John  Smith 
that  after  his  experience  on  the  American  coast  he  was  able  to 
form  views  of  the  geography  of  the  continent  almost  a  century  in 
advance  of  the  opinions  held  in  his  time.  He  speaks  of  "  those 
large  Dominions  which  doe  stretch  themselves  into  the  main 
God  knoweth  how  many  thousand  miles"  (Generall  Historic, 
book  vi). 

So  late  as  1626,  Fleet,  the  only  survivor  of  the  massacre  of 
Spelman's  party,  after  spending  five  years  in  captivity  among  the 


English  Notions  of  America. 


Virginia  Indians,  persuaded  a  London  merchant  to  intrust  him 
with  a  vessel  for  the  Indian  trade  by  his  stories  of  the  "  powder  of 
gold  "  with  which  the  savages  made  a  paint  for  their  faces.  To 
this  story  he  added  a  statement  that  he  had  often  been  in  sight 
of  the  South  Sea  or  Pacific  Ocean.  Fleet's  Journal  may  be  found 
in  Scharf's  History  of  Maryland,  i,  13,  etc.  Van  der  Donck  re 
lates,  in  his  description  of  New  Netherland,  that  Kieft,  the  di 
rector  of  New  Netherland,  and  Van  der  Donck,  found  an  Indian 
painting  himself  and  bought  the  pigment,  which  being  burned  in 
a  crucible  yielded  two  pieces  of  gold.  (See  the  translation  in 
New  York  Historical  Society  Collection,  ii,  161,  162.)  A  bag  of 
specimens  of  the  precious  ores  of  the  Hudson  River  region  was 
sent  to  Holland  by  the  ill-fated  ship  that  sailed  out  of  New 
Haven  in  1645.  The  ship  was  seen  no  more  except  by  the 
New  Haven  people,  who  beheld  its  specter  in  the  sky.  Of  the 
Hudson  River  gold  mines  no  specter  has  ever  been  seen  in  earth 
or  sky. 

I  have  quoted  from  Mr.  Sainsbury's  abstract  of  the  fragment 
in  the  British  Public  Record  Office,  but  a  similar  statement  by 
Ingram  was  inserted  in  Hakluyt's  Divers  Voyages  in  1589.  It 
was  omitted  in  the  later  edition  as  too  incredible  even  for  Hak- 
luyt.  See  also  a  paper  by  Dr.  De  Costa,  in  the  Magazine  of 
American  History,  March,  1883,  on  the  copy  of  Ingram's  State 
ment  preserved  in  the  Bodleian  Library.  Ingram's  story,  and 
others  like  it,  seem  to  be  satirized  in  the  play  of  Eastward,  Ho  ! 
by  Chapman,  Jonson,  and  Marston.  The  assertion  of  Seagull,  in 
the  play,  that  "  they  have  in  their  houses  scowpes,  buckets,  and 
diverse  other  vessels  of  massie  silver,"  would  seem  at  first  sight 
to  be  an  unmistakable  allusion  to  the  extravagance  of  Ingram's 
narrative.  But  in  the  second  edition  of  Bullein's  A  Dialogue 
against  the  Fever  Pestilence,  which  was  published  in  1573,  one 
Mendax,  describing  an  unknown  land,  declares  that  "  their  pottes, 
panns,  and  all  vessells  are  cleane  gold  garnished  with  dia- 
mondes."  This  shows  that  Ingram's  story  had  probably  ab 
sorbed  certain  traits  from  what  I  have  ventured  to  call  European 
folklore  tales  about  America — folk  tales  originally  applied  to  the 
Orient,  no  doubt ;  echoes  of  Sir  John  Mandeville  and  Marco 
Polo,  perhaps.  Of  course  it  is  just  possible,  but  not  probable, 
that  Bullein  had  heard  the  tales  of  Ingram,  who  had  returned 
three  years  or  more  before  he  printed  his  second  edition.  The 
authors  of  Eastward,  Ho  !  probably  enlarged  on  Bullein. 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  8, 
page  15. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 
Note  9, 
page  1 8. 


Note  10, 
page  19. 


"  Unguibusque  inter  squamas  immissis,"  Decade  III,  book  vi. 
These  details  are  probably  given  on  the  authority  of  Sebastian 
Cabot,  whose  veracity  is  not  above  suspicion. 

Some  of  the  early  writers  speak  of  "  apes."  Strachey  calls 
what  appears  to  be  a  raccoon  a  monkey,  and  Brickell,  as  late  as 
1743,  uses  the  same  word.  The  peccaries  are  recorded  as  in  the 
text  by  the  marvel-loving  Purchas,  p.  805.  One  finds  unicorns  in 
Speed's  Prospect,  Description  of  New  York.  Speed  also  lets  us 
know  that  the  buffalo  was  accustomed  to  defend  himself  by  vom 
iting  "  a  hot  scalding  liquor  "  on  the  dogs  that  chased  it.  Argall 
was  the  first  Englishman  to  see  the  bison,  in  1613.  Citing  his 
letter,  Purchas  says,  p.  943,  "  In  one  voyage  .  .  .  they  found  a 
slow  kind  of  cattell  as  bigge  as  kine,  which  were  good  meate." 


CHAPTER   THE   SECOND. 

JAMES  RIVER  EXPERIMENTS. 


I. 

IN  December,  1606,  there  lay  at  Blackwall, 
below  London,  the  Susan  Constant,  of  one  hundred 
tons,  the  Godspeed,  of  forty  tons,  and  the  little  pin 
nace  Discovery,  of  but  twenty  tons — three  puny 
ships  to  bear  across  the  wintry  Atlantic  the  begin 
ners  of  a  new  nation.  The  setting  forth  of  these 
argonauts  produced  much  excitement  in  London. 
Patriotic  feeling  was  deeply  stirred,  public  prayers 
were  offered  for  the  success  of  the  expedition,  ser 
mons  appropriate  to  the  occasion  were  preached, 
and  the  popular  feeling  was  expressed  in  a  poem 
by  Michael  Drayton.  Even  those  who  were  too 
sober  to  indulge  the  vain  expectations  of  gold 
mines  and  spice  islands  that  filled  the  imaginations 
of  most  Englishmen  on  this  occasion  could  say,  as 
Lord  Bacon  did  later:  "  It  is  with  the  kingdoms  on 
earth  as  it  is  with  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  some 
times  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  proves  a  great  tree. 
Who  can  tell?"  On  the  igth  of  that  most  tem 
pestuous  December  the  little  fleet  weighed  anchor 
and  ran  down  on  an  ebb  tide,  no  doubt,  as  one  may 
nowadays  see  ships  rush  past  Blackwall  toward  the 
sea.  Never  were  men  engaged  in  a  great  enter- 

25 


CHAP.  II. 

Departure 
of  the  emi 
grants. 


Ld.   Chan 
cellor's 
Speech  in 
reply  to  the 
Speaker. 


26 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


A.  D.  1606. 


prise  doomed  to  greater  sorrows.  From  the  time 
they  left  the  Thames  the  ships  were  tossed  and 
delayed  by  tempests,  while  the  company  aboard 
was  rent  by  factious  dissensions. 


II. 

Those  who  shaped  the  destinies  of  the  colony 
had  left  little  undone  that  inventive  stupidity  could 
suggest  to  assure  the  failure  of  the  enterprise. 
King  James,  who  was  frivolously  fond  of  puttering 
in  novel  projects,  had  personally  framed  a  code  of 
unwise  laws  and  orders.  The  supremacy  of  the 
sovereign  and  the  interests  of  the  Church  were 
pedantically  guarded,  but  the  colony  was  left  with 
out  any  ruler  with  authority  enough  to  maintain 
order.  The  private  interest  of  the  individual,  the 
most  available  of  all  motives  to  industry,  was 
merged  in  that  of  the  commercial  company  to 
which  Virginia  had  been  granted.  All  the  prod 
uce  of  the  colony  was  to  go  into  a  common  stock 
for  five  years,  and  the  emigrants,  men  without 
families,  were  thrown  into  a  semi-monastic  trading 
community  like  the  Hanseatic  agencies  of  the  time, 
with  the  saving  element  of  a  strong  authority  left 
out.  Better  devices  for  promoting  indolence  and 
aggravating  the  natural  proneness  to  dissension  of 
men  in  hard  circumstances  could  scarcely  have 
been  hit  upon.  Anarchy  and  despotism  are  the 
inevitable  alternatives  under  such  a  communistic 
arrangement,  and  each  of  these  ensued  in  turn. 


James  River  Experiments. 


2; 


III. 

The  people  sent  over  in  the  first  years  were  for 
the  most  part  utterly  unfit.  Of  the  first  hundred, 
four  were  carpenters,  there  was  a  blacksmith,  a 
tailor,  a  barber,  a  bricklayer,  a  mason,  a  drummer. 
There  were  fifty-five  who  ranked  as  gentlemen, 
and  four  were  boys,  while  there  were  but  twelve 
so-called  laborers,  including  footmen,  "  that  never 
did  know  what  a  day's  work  was."  The  company 
is  described  by  one  of  its  members  as  composed  of 
poor  gentlemen,  tradesmen,  serving  men,  libertines, 
and  such  like.  "  A  hundred  good  workmen  were 
better  than  a  thousand  such  gallants,"  says  Captain 
Smith.  Of  the  moral  character  of  the  first  emi 
grants  no  better  account  is  given.  It  was  perhaps 
with  these  men  in  view  that  Bacon  declared  it  "  a 
shameful  and  unblessed  thing  "  to  settle  a  colony 
with  "  the  scum  of  the  people." 

IV. 

The  ships  sailed  round  by  the  Canaries,  after 
the  fashion  of  that  time,  doubling  the  distance  to 
Virginia.  They  loitered  in  the  West  Indies  to 
"  refresh  themselves "  and  quarrel,  and  they  did 
not  reach  their  destination  until  seedtime  had 
well-nigh  passed.  They  arrived  on  the  6th  of 
May,  according  to  our  style.  Driven  into  Hamp 
ton  Roads  by  a  storm,  they  sailed  up  the  wide 
mouth  of  a  river  which  they  called  the  James,  in 
honor  of  the  king.  At  that  season  of  the  year  the 


CHAP.  II. 


Character 
of  the  emi 
grants. 

Smith's 
Gen.  Hist., 
iii,  c.  i  and 
c.  xii. 
Advertise 
ments  for 
Planters  of 
New  Eng., 
P-  5- 
Comp. 
Brief e  De 
claration  in 
Pub.  Rec. 
Off.,  Sains- 
bury  i,  66  ; 
and  New 
Life  of  Va. 


Essay  on 
Planta 
tions. 


The  arri 
val. 


28 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 
A.  D.  1607. 


Percy,  in 
Purchas, 
p.  1689. 


The  first 
meetings 
with  In 
dians. 


Percy,  in 
Purchas  iv, 
PP-  1685, 
1686. 


banks  must  have  shown  masses  of  the  white  flow 
ers  of  the  dogwood,  mingled  with  the  pink-purple 
blossoms  of  the  redbud  against  the  dark  primeval 
forest.  Wherever  they  went  ashore  the  newcom 
ers  found  "  all  the  ground  bespread  with  many 
sweet  and  delicate  flowers  of  divers  colors  and 
kinds."  The  sea-weary  voyagers  concluded  that 
"  heaven  and  earth  had  never  agreed  better  to 
frame  a  place  for  man's  habitation." 

They  were  like  people  in  an  enchanted  land— 
all  was  so  new  and  strange.  On  the  first  landing 
of  a  small  party  they  had  a  taste  of  savage  war 
fare.  "  At  night,  when  wee  were  going  aboard, 
there  came  the  savages  creeping  from  the  Hills 
like  Beares,  with  their  Bowes  in  their  Mouthes, 
charged  us  very  desperately,  hurt  Captain  Gabrill 
Archer  in  both  hands,  and  a  Sayler  in  two  places 
of  the  body  very  dangerous.  After  they  had  spent 
their  arrowes,  and  felt  the  sharpness  of  our  shot, 
they  retired  into  the  Woods  with  a  great  noise  and 
so  left  us." 

But  the  newly  arrived  did  not  find  all  the  Indi 
ans  hostile.  The  chief  of  the  Rappahannocks  came 
to  welcome  them,  marching  at  the  head  of  his 
train,  piping  on  a  reed  flute,  and  clad  in  the  fantas 
tic  dress  of  an  Indian  dandy.  He  wore  a  plate  of 
copper  on  the  shorn  side  of  his  head.  The  hair  on 
the  other  side  was  wrapped  about  with  deer's  hair 
dyed  red,  "  in  the  fashion  of  a  rose."  Two  long 
feathers  "  like  a  pair  of  horns  "  were  stuck  in  this 
rosy  crown.  His  body  was  stained  crimson,  his 


'€> 


James  River  Experiments. 


face  painted  blue  and  besmeared  with  some  glis 
tering-  pigment  which  to  the  greedy  eyes  of  the 
English  seemed  to  be  silver  ore.  He  wore  a  chain 
of  beads,  or  wampum,  about  his  neck,  and  his  ears 
\vere  "  all  behting  with  bracelets  of  pearls."  There 
also  depended  from  each  ear  a  bird's  claw  set  with 
copper — or  "  gold,"  adds  the  narrator,  indulging  a 
delightful  dubiety. 

During  the  period  of  preliminary  exploration 
every  trait  of  savage  life  was  eagerly  observed  by 
the  English.  The  costume,  the  wigwams,  and  most 
of  all  the  ingenious  weapons  of  wood  and  stone, 
gave  delight  to  the  curiosity  of  the  newcomers. 

v. 

The  colonists  chose  for  the  site  of  their  town 
what  was  then  a  malarial  peninsula ;  it  has  since 
become  an  island.  The  place  was  naturally  de 
fended  by  the  river  on  all  sides,  except  where  a 
narrow  stretch  of  sand  made  a  bridge  to  the  main. 
Its  chief  advantage  in  the  eyes  of  the  newcomers 
was  that  the  deep  water  near  the  shore  made  it 
possible  to  moor  the  ships  by  merely  tying  them 
up  to  trees  on  the  river  bank.  Here  the  settlers 
planted  cotton  and  orange  trees  at  once,  and  ex 
perimental  potatoes,  melons,  and  pumpkins,  but 
they  postponed  sowing  grain  until  about  the  first 
of  June  in  our  reckoning. 

They  took  up  their  abode  in  hastily  built  cabins 
roofed  with  sedge  or  bark,  and  in  ragged  tents. 
The  poorer  sort  were  even  fain  to  shelter  them- 


CHAP.  II. 
A.  D.  1607. 


Purchas  i, 
686  and 
following. 


Founding 
of  James 
town. 


Note  i. 


Relatyon 
of  the  Dis 
covery  of 
our  River, 
Am.  Antiq. 
Soc.,iv,  61. 


The  win 
ter  of 
misery. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 

A.  D.  1607. 


selves  in  mere  burrows  in  the  ground.  Ill  provided 
at  the  start,  the  greater  part  of  their  food  was  con 
sumed  by  the  seamen,  who  lingered  to  gather  com 
minuted  mica  for  gold.  In  this  hard  environment, 
rent  by  faction,  destitute  of  a  competent  leader  and 
of  any  leader  with  competent  authority,  the  won 
der  is  that  of  this  little  company  a  single  man  sur 
vived  the  winter.  "  There  never  were  Englishmen 
left  in  any  foreign  country  in  such  misery  as  we 
were  in  this  new-discovered  Virginia,"  says  George 
Percy,  brother  to  the  Earl  of  Northumberland.  A 
pint  of  worm-eaten  barley  or  wheat  was  allowed 
for  a  day's  ration.  This  was  made  into  pottage 
and  served  out  at  the  rate  of  one  small  ladleful  at 
each  meal.  "Our  drink  was  water,  our  lodgings 
castles  in  the  air,"  says  Smith.  The  misery  was 
aggravated  by  a  constant  fear  of  attack  from  the 
Indians,  who  had  been  repulsed  in  an  energetic 
assault  made  soon  after  the  landing  of  the  English. 
It  was  necessary  for  each  man  to  watch  every 
third  night  "  lying  on  the  cold,  bare  ground,"  and 
this  exposure  in  a  fever  swamp,  with  the  slender 
allowance  of  food  of  bad  quality  and  the  brackish 
river  water,  brought  on  swellings,  dysenteries,  and 
fevers.  Sometimes  there  were  not  five  men  able 
to  bear  arms.  "  If  there  were  any  conscience  in 
men,"  says  Percy,  "  it  would  make  their  hearts 
bleed  to  hear  the  pitiful  murmurings  and  outcries 
of  our  sick  men  without  relief  every  day  and  night 
for  the  space  of  about  six  weeks."  The  living  were 
hardly  able  to  bury  the  dead,  whose  bodies  were 


James  River  Experiments. 


"  trailed  out  like  dogs."  Half  of  the  hundred  colo 
nists  died,  and  the  survivors  were  saved  by  the 
Indians,  who,  having  got  a  taste  of  muskets  and 
cannon  in  their  early  attack  on  Jamestown,  now 
brought  in  supplies  of  game,  corn,  persimmons,  and 
other  food,  to  trade  for  the  novel  trinkets  of  the 
white  men. 

VI. 

Peril  and  adversity  bring  the  capable  man  to 
the  front.  The  colony  proceeded,  by  means  of  the 
technicalities  habitually  used  in  those  days,  to  rid 
itself  of  its  president,  Wingfield,  a  man  of  good  in 
tentions  but  with  no  talents  suitable  to  a  place  of 
such  difficulty.  Slowly,  by  one  change  and  then 
another,  the  leadership  fell  into  the  hands  of  Cap 
tain  John  Smith.  During  the  voyage  he  had 
drawn  upon  himself  the  jealousy  of  the  others, 
probably  by  his  boastful  and  self-asserting  habit  of 
speech.  When  the  list  of  councilors,  till  then  kept 
secret,  was  opened  at  Jamestown  and  his  name  was 
found  in  it,  he  was  promptly  excluded  by  his  asso 
ciates.  It  was  only  on  the  intercession  of  the  cler 
gyman,  Hunt,  that  he  was  at  length  admitted  to 
the  Council. 

His  paradoxical  character  has  been  much  mis 
understood.  Those  who  discredit  the  historical 
accuracy  of  Captain  Smith's  narratives  consider 
his  deeds  of  no  value.  It  is  the  natural  result  and 
retribution  of  boasting  that  the  real  merit  of  the 
boaster  is  cast  into  the  rubbish  heap  of  contempt 


CHAP.  II. 


Emer 
gence  of 
Captain 
John 
Smith. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


His  story 
of  his  own 
life. 


along  with  his  false  pretensions.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  appreciate  Smith's  services  to  the 
colony  in  its  dire  extremities  believe  that  the  his 
torical  authority  of  such  a  man  must  be  valid. 

His  character,  double  and  paradoxical  as  it  is, 
presents  no  insoluble  enigma  if  we  consider  the 
forces  of  nature  and  of  habit  underlying  its  mani 
festations.  According  to  his  own  highly  colored 
narrative,  he  had  fed  his  fervid  imagination  on  ro 
mances  of  chivalry.  The  first  natural  result  in  a 
youth  so  energetic  as  he,  was  that  he  should  set 
out  to  emulate  the  imaginary  heroes  of  whom  he 
had  read.  It  was  equally  a  matter  of  course  that 
a  man  of  his  vanity  should  exaggerate  his  own  ad 
ventures  to  the  size  of  those  that  had  excited  his 
admiration.  The  same  romantic  turn  of  the  imag 
ination  that  sent  him  a-wandering  after  exploits 
in  Flanders  and  in  the  wars  with  the  Turks,  in 
Barbary,  and  in  Ireland,  made  his  every  adventure 
seem  an  exploit  of  heroic  size.  Such  a  man  is  valu 
able  when  boldness  and  aggressive  action  are  in 
request ;  to  relate  facts  where  autobiography  is  in 
volved  he  is  little  fitted. 

According  to  Smith's  own  narrative,  he  was 
robbed  and  shipwrecked  at  sea ;  he  slew  three  in 
fidel  champions  in  single  combat  and  cut  off  their 
heads,  just  for  the  amusement  of  the  ladies;  he 
was  made  captive  by  the  Turks  and  escaped  by 
slaying  his  master  with  a  flail ;  he  encountered 
pirates  ;  in  the  plunder  of  a  ship  he  secured  by 
the  grace  of  God  a  box  of  jewels;  and,  to  round 


James  River  Experiments. 


33 


off  his  story,  he  was  beloved  in  romance  fashion 
by  a  fair  Turkish  lady,  one  Tragabigzanda ;  be 
friended  by  a  Russian  lady,  the  good  Calamata  ; 
and,  later,  was  snatched  from  the  open  jaws  of  death 
by  the  devotion  of  the  lovely  Princess  Pocahontas, 
daughter  of  King  Powhatan,  of  Virginia.  What 
more  could  one  ask  ?  Here  are  the  elements  of 
all  the  romances.  But,  to  crown  all,  he  emulated 
the  misadventure  of  the  prophet  Jonah,  and  he  even 
out-Jonahed  Jonah.  He  got  ashore  by  mere  swim 
ming  without  the  aid  of  a  whale,  when  cast  over 
board  by  Catholic  pilgrims  to  appease  a  tempest. 
Never  any  other  wanderer  since  the  safe  return  of 
Ulysses  passed  through  such  a  succession  of  mar 
velous  escapes  as  this  young  John  Smith.  His  ac 
cidents  and  achievements,  even  without  exaggera 
tion,  were  fairly  notable,  doubtless,  but  they  are 
forever  obscured  by  his  vices  of  narration. 

By  the  time  he  was  twenty-eight  years  old  this 
knight-errant  had  pretty  well  exhausted  Europe  as 
a  field  for  adventure.  Soon  after  his  return  to  his 
own  land  he  found  the  navigator  Gosnold  agitating 
for  a  new  colony  in  Virginia,  the  scene  of  Ralegh's 
failures.  That  being  the  most  difficult  and  dan 
gerous  enterprise  then  in  sight,  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  that  Smith  should  embark  in  it.  From 
this  time  to  the  end  of  his  life  this  really  able 
man  gave  his  best  endeavors  to  the  advancement 
of  American  colonization.  Make  what  reductions 
we  may,  the  results  of  his  journeys  and  the  testi 
mony  of  his  contemporaries  show  him  to  have  been 


CHAP.  II. 


Interest  in 
coloniza 
tion. 


His  char 
acter. 


34 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Smith's 
explora 
tion  and 
trading. 


A.  D.  1607, 
1608. 


Oxford 

Tract, 

passim. 

Gen.  Hist. 
passim. 


brave,  vigilant,  conciliatory,  and  successful.  In 
labor  he  was  indefatigable,  in  emergencies  he 
proved  himself  ready-witted  and  resourceful. 
His  recorded  geographical  observations  are  re 
markably  accurate  considering  his  circumstances, 
and  his  understanding  of  Indian  life  shows  his  in 
telligence.  His  writings  on  practical  questions  are 
terse,  epigrammatic,  and  wise  beyond  the  wisdom 
of  his  time.  But  where  his  own  adventures  or 
credit  are  involved  he  is  hardly  more  trustworthy 
than  Falstaff.  His  boasting  is  one  of  the  many  dif 
ficulties  a  historian  has  to  encounter  in  seeking  to 
discover  the  truth  regarding  the  events  of  an  age 
much  given  to  lying. 

VII. 

On  Smith  principally  devolved  the  explorations 
for  a  passage  to  the  Pacific  and  the  conduct  of  the 
Indian  trade.  He  was  captured  by  the  Indians  in 
the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy  and  carried  from 
village  to  village  in  triumph.  Contriving  to  secure 
his  release  from  the  head  chief,  Powhatan,  he  re 
turned  to  Jamestown.  Nothing  could  have  suited 
better  his  bold  genius  and  roving  disposition  than 
the  life  he  thereafter  led  in  Virginia.  He  sailed  up 
and  down  the  bays  and  estuaries,  discovering  and 
naming  unknown  islands,  ascending  great  unknown 
rivers,  cajoling  or  bullying  the  Indians,  and  re 
turning  to  his  hungry  countrymen  at  Jamestown 
laden  with  maize  from  the  granaries  of  the  savages. 
Smith  and  his  companions  coasted  in  all  seasons 


James  River  Experiments. 


35 


and  all  weather  in  an  open  boat,  exercising  them 
selves  in  morning  psalm-singing  and  praying,  in 
manoeuvring  strange  Indians  by  blustering  or  point- 
blank  lying,  and  in  trying  to  propagate  the  Chris 
tian  religion  among  the  heathen — all  in  turn  as 
occasion  offered,  like  true  Englishmen  of  the  Jaco 
bean  time. 

Captain  Smith's  earlier  accounts  of  these  achieve 
ments  in  Virginia  seem  to  be  nearer  the  truth  than 
his  later  Generall  Historic.  As  years  rolled  on  his 
exploits  gained  in  number  and  magnitude  in  his 
memory.  The  apocryphal  story  of  his  expound 
ing  the  solar  system  by  means  of  a  pocket  compass 
to  savages  whose  idiom  he  had  had  no  opportunity 
to  learn  is  to  be  found  only  in  his  later  writings. 
He  is  a  prisoner  but  a  month  in  the  narrative  of 
the  Oxford  Tract  of  1612,  which  \vas  written  by 
his  associates  and  published  with  his  authority,  but 
his  captivity  had  grown  to  six  or  seven  weeks  in 
the  Generall  Historic  of  1624.  His  prosaic  release 
by  Powhatan  had  developed  into  a  romantic  rescue 
by  Pocahontas.  Two  or  three  hundred  savages  in 
the  earlier  account  become  four  or  five  hundred 
in  the  later.  Certain  Poles  assist  him  in  the  cap 
ture  of  an  Indian  chief  in  the  authorized  narrative 
of  Pots  and  Phettiplace.  In  the  later  story  our 
hero  performs  this  feat  single-handed.  A  mere 
cipher  attaches  itself  sometimes  to  the  figure  rep 
resenting  the  number  of  his  enemies,  who  by  this 
simple  feat  of  memory  become  ten  times  more  re 
doubtable  than  before. 


CHAP.  II. 


His  narra 
tive. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 

His  serv 
ice  to  the 
colony.  - 

Oxf.  Tract, 
p.  32. 

Gen.  Hist. , 
bk.  iii, 
ch.  v. 


Historic  of 
Travaile 
into  Vir 
ginia,  p. 
41. 


Smith 
over 
thrown. 


But  it  does  not  matter  greatly  whether  the 
"strangely  grimmed  and  disguised"  Indians  seen 
by  Smith  at  one  place  on  the  Potomac,  who,  ac 
cording  to  the  story,  were  shouting  and  yelling 
horribly,  though  in  ambuscade,  numbered  three  or 
four  hundred  as  in  one  account,  or  three  or  four 
thousand  as  in  his  later  story.  To  Captain  Smith 
remains  the  credit  of  having  been  the  one  ener 
getic  and  capable  man  in  those  first  years — the 
man  who  wasted  no  time  in  a  search  for  gold,  but 
won  from  the  Indians  what  was  of  infinitely  greater 
value — the  corn  needed  to  preserve  the  lives  of  the 
colonists.  In  an  open  boat,  with  no  instrument 
but  a  compass,  he  explored  and  mapped  Chesa 
peake  Bay  so  well  that  his  map  was  not  wholly 
superseded  for  a  hundred  and  forty  years.  Even 
Wingfield,  who  had  reason  to  dislike  Smith,  recog 
nizes  the  value  of  his  services  ;  and  Strachey,  who 
had  every  means  of  knowing,  says  that  "  there 
will  not  return  from  "  Virginia  "  in  hast  any  one 
who  hath  bene  more  industrious  or  who  hath  had 
(Captain  Geo.  Percie  excepted)  greater  experience 
amongst  them,  however  misconstruction  maye  tra 
duce  here  at  home." 

During  the  autumn  of  1608  and  the  winter  fol 
lowing  Captain  Smith  was  sole  ruler  of  James 
town,  all  the  other  councilors  having  gone  ;  but 
the  next  spring  there  arrived  five  hundred  new 
colonists  inadequately  provisioned,  and  under  two 
of  the  old  faction  leaders  who  were  Smith's  mor 
tal  enemies.  These  were  the  visionary  and  turbu- 


James  River  Experiments. 


37 


lent  Archer  and  his  follower  Ratcliffe.  Smith  got 
some  of  the  newcomers  to  settle  at  Nansemond, 
and  others  took  up  their  abode  near  the  falls  of 
the  James  River.  After  much  turmoil  Smith  was 
disabled  by  an  accident,  and  his  enemies  contrived 
to  have  him  sent  home  charged,  among  other 
things,  with  having  "  incensed  "  the  Indians  to  as 
sault  the  insubordinate  settlers  under  West  near 
the  falls,  and  with  having  designed  to  wed  Poca- 
hontas  in  order  to  secure  royal  rights  in  Virginia 
as  son-in-law  to  Powhatan. 

He  afterward  explored  the  New  England  coast 
with  characteristic  thoroughness  and  intelligence. 
What  he  published  in  his  later  years  by  way  of 
advice  on  the  subject  of  colony-planting  is  full  of 
admirable  good  sense.  With  rare  foresight  he  pre 
dicted  the  coming  importance  of  the  colonial  trade 
and  the  part  to  be  played  by  the  American  fish 
eries  in  promoting  the  greatness  of  England  by 
"  breeding  mariners."  He  only  of  the  men  of  his 
time  suspected  the  imperial  size  and  future  great 
ness  of  North  America.  He  urged  that  the  colo 
nies  should  not  annoy  "  with  large  pilotage  and 
such  like  dues  "  those  who  came  to  trade  in  their 
ports.  Low  customs,  he  says,  enrich  a  people. 
This  is  a  strange  doctrine  in  an  age  when  foreign 
trade  seemed  almost  an  evil,  and  false  conceptions 
of  economic  principles  were  nearly  universal. 
Captain  Smith's  words  are  often  pregnant  with  a 
wit  whose  pungency  is  delightful.  In  mental  and 
physical  hardihood,  and  in  what  may  be  called 


CHAP.  II. 
A.  D.  1609. 

Note  2. 


His  later 
years. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Note  3. 


The  fam 
ine  of 
i6og-'io. 


Note  4. 


A.  D.  1609, 
1610. 


shiftiness,  as  well  as  in  proneness  to  exaggeration 
and  in  boastfulness,  he  was  in  some  sense  a  typical 
American  pioneer — a  forerunner  of  the  daring  and 
ready-witted  men  who  have  subdued  a  savage 
continent. 

VIII. 

Disaster  of  some  sort  could  hardly  have  been 
avoided  had  Captain  Smith  been  allowed  to  stay, 
but  after  his  departure  ruin  came  swiftly,  and  there 
was  no  hand  strong  enough  to  stay  it.  The  un 
checked  hostility  of  the  savages  drove  the  outset- 
tiers  from  Nansemond  and  the  falls  of  the  James. 
The  Indians  found  exercise  for  their  devilish  in 
genuity  in  torturing  those  who  fell  into  their  hands 
alive,  and  outraging  the  dead.  The  brave  but  un 
wise  Percy  added  fuel  to  their  consuming  fury 
by  visiting  their  shrine  and  desecrating  the  tombs 
of  their  chiefs.  There  was  now  no  one  who  could 
carry  on  the  difficult  Indian  trade.  Ratcliffe,  who 
had  conspired  to  send  Smith  back  to  England,  fell 
into  an  ambuscade  while  emulating  Captain  Smith's 
example  in  trading  with  Powhatan.  He  was  tor 
tured  to  death  by  the  Indian  women,  and  only 
fifteen  of  his  fifty  men  got  back  to  Jamestown. 
The  brood  hogs  of  the  colony  were  all  eaten,  the 
dogs  came  next,  and  then  the  horses,  which  were 
to  have  stocked  Virginia,  were  consumed  to  their 
very  hides.  Rats,  mice,  and  adders  were  relished 
when  they  were  to  be  had,  and  fungi  of  various 
sorts  were  eaten  with  whatever  else  "  would  fill 


James  River  Experiments. 


39 


either  mouth  or  belly."  An  Indian  slain  in  an 
assault  on  the  stockade  was  dug  up  after  he  had 
been  three  days  buried,  and  eaten  "  by  the  poorer 
sort,"  their  consuming  hunger  not  being  embar 
rassed  by  the  restraints  of  gentility.  From  this 
horrible  expedient  it  was  but  one  step  to  the  dig 
ging  up  of  their  own  dead  for  food.  Famine- 
crazed  men  even  dogged  the  steps  of  those  of  their 
comrades  who  were  not  quite  wasted,  threatening 
to  kill  and  devour  them.  Among  these  despair 
ing  and  shiftless  men  there  was  but  one  man  of 
resources.  Daniel  Tucker — let  his  later  sins  as 
tyrant  of  Bermuda  be  forgiven — bethought  himself 
to  build  a  boat  to  catch  fish  in  the  river,  and  this 
small  relief  "  did  keep  us  from  killing  one  another 
to  eat,"  says  Percy.  He  seems  to  have  been  the 
only  man  who  bethought  himself  to  do  anything. 
One  man,  in  the  ferocity  engendered  by  famine, 
slew  his  own  wife  and  salted  what  he  did__not  eat 
at  once  of  her  flesh,  but  he  was  put  to  death  at 
the  stake  for  this  crime.  Some,  braving  the  sav 
ages,  sought  food  in  the  woods  and  died  while 
seeking  it,  and  were  eaten  by  those  who  found 
them  dead.  Others,  in  sheer  desperation,  threw 
themselves  on  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Indians 
and  were  slain.  To  physical  were  added  spiritual 
torments.  One  despairing  wretch  threw  his  Bible 
into  the  fire,  crying  out  in  the  market  place  that 
there  was  no  God  in  heaven.  Percy  adds,  with 
grim  theological  satisfaction  characteristic  of  the 
time,  that  he  was  killed  by  the  Indians  in  the  very 


CHAP.  II. 
A.  D.  1610. 


Note  5. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Tragicall 
Relation, 
1623. 

Briefe  Dec 
laration, 
1624,  both 
in  British 
Pub.  Rec 
ord  Office. 
Percy's 
Trewe  Re- 
lacy  on, 
MS.,  Pet- 
worth 
House. 


The  arri 
val  of 
Gates  and 
Somers, 

1610. 


A  True 
Declara 
tion  of  the 
Estate  of 
the  Colony 
of  Virginia, 
1610,  p.  23. 


market  place  where  he  had  blasphemed  in  his 
agony.  The  depopulated  houses,  and  even  the 
palisades  so  necessary  for  protection,  were  burned 
for  firewood  by  the  enfeebled  people,  and  James 
town  came  presently  to  look  like  the  slumbering 
ruins  of  some  ancient  fortification.  Fortunately, 
the  Indians  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  lose 
any  more  of  their  men  in  attacking  the  desperate 
remainder.  It  seemed  inevitable  that  all  who  were 
shut  up  in  the  Jamestown  peninsula  should  perish 
of  hunger  in  a  very  few  days.  Of  the  nearly  five 
hundred  colonists  in  Virginia  in  the  autumn  of 
1609,  there  were  but  sixty  famine-smitten  wretches 
alive  in  the  following  June,  and  hardly  one  of 
these  could  have  survived  had  help  been  delayed 
a  few  days  longer. 

IX. 

Relief  came  to  the  little  remnant  from  a  quarter 
whence  it  was  least  expected.  The  emigrants  of 
the  preceding  year  had  been  sent  out  under  the 
authority  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  Sir  George 
Somers.  The  two  leaders  were  jealous  of  each 
other,  and  for  fear  either  should  gain  advantage  by 
prior  arrival  they  embarked  in  the  same  ship. 
This  ship  became  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
fleet  and  went  ashore  on  the  Bermudas,  then  unin 
habited,  and  "  accounted  as  an  inchaunted  pile  of 
rockes  and  a  desert  inhabitation  for  Divels,"  in  the 
words  of  a  writer  of  the  time;  "but  all  the  fairies 
of  the  rocks  were  but  flocks  of  birds,  and  all  the 


James  River  Experiments. 


Divels  that  haunted  the  woods  were  but  herds  of 
swine."  Here  old  Sir  George  Somers,  a  veteran 
seaman,  constructed  two  little  cedar  vessels,  and 
provisioning  them  for  the  voyage  with  what  the 
islands  afforded— live  turtles,  and  the  flesh  of  wild 
hogs  and  waterfowl  salted— the  company  set  sail 
for  Virginia  in  the  spring  of  1610,  arriving  barely 
in  time  to  save  the  colony  from  extinction.  Find 
ing  that  their  provisions  would  not  last  more  than 
two  or  three  weeks,  they  abandoned  the  wreck  of 
Jamestown,  crowding  all  the  people  into  four  pin 
naces,  including  the  two  improvised  cedar  boats 
built  on  the  Bermudas.  They  sailed  down  the 
river  in  the  desperate  hope  of  surviving  until  they 
could  reach  Newfoundland  and  get  supplies  from 
fishing  vessels.  The  four  little  craft  were  turned 
back  on  encountering  Lord  De  la  Warr,  the  new 
governor,  ascending  the  James  to  take  charge  of 
the  colony.  The  meeting  with  De  la  Warr  was 
bitterly  regretted  by  the  old  settlers,  who  pre 
ferred  the  desperate  chance  of  a  voyage  in  pin 
naces  on  a  shipless  sea  with  but  a  fortnight's  pro 
vision  to  facing  again  the  horrors  of  life  at 
Jamestown. 

With  all  the  formalities  thought  necessary  at 
that  time,  De  la  Warr  took  possession  of  James 
town,  now  become  a  forlorn  ruin  full  of  dead  men's 
bones.  Gates  was  sent  to  England  for  a  new  stock 
of  cattle,  while  the  brave  old  Sir  George  Somers 
once  more  embarked  for  the  Bermudas  in  the  Pa 
tience,  the  little  cedar  pinnace  which  he  had  built 


CHAP.  II. 

Note  6. 


Dela 

Warr's  ar 
rival,  1610. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 

Smith's 
Oxford 
Tract,  so 
called. 


Note  7. 


Dela 
Warr's 
govern 
ment,  1610. 

Note  8. 


British  Mu 
seum,  MS. 
2i,993, 
ff.  174,  178- 
Instr.  to 
Gates  and 
Dela 
Warr. 


Gold-hunt- 
ing. 


wholly  of  the  wood  of  that  island  without  a  parti 
cle  of  iron  except  one  bolt  in  the  keel.  In  this  boat 
he  sailed  up  and  down  until  he  found  again  "the 
still  vexed  Bermoothes,"  where  he  hoped  to  secure 
provisions.  He  died  in  the  islands.  Argall  was 
also  sent  to  the  Bermudas,  but  missed  them,  and 
went  north  to  the  fishing  banks  in  search  of  food. 

Jamestown  was  cleansed,  and  with  a  piety  char 
acteristic  of  that  age  the  deserted  little  church  was 
enlarged  and  reoccupied  and  daily  decorated  with 
Virginia  wild  flowers.  All  the  bitter  experience  of 
the  first  three  years  had  not  taught  the  true  meth 
od  of  settling  a  new  country.  The  colony  was  still 
but  a  camp  of  men  without  families,  and  the  old 
common  stock  system  was  retained.  To  escape 
from  the  anarchy  which  resulted  from  a  system 
that  sank  the  interest  of  the  individual  in  that  of 
the  community,  it  had  been  needful  to  arm  De  la 
Warr  with  the  sharp  sword  of  martial  law.  Some 
of  the  instructions  given  him  were  unwise,  some 
impossible  of  execution.  To  convert  the  Indians 
out  of  hand,  as  he  was  told  to  do,  by  shutting  up 
their  medicine  men  or  sending  them  to  England  to 
be  Christianized  by  the  methods  then  in  use,  did 
not  seem  a  task  easy  of  accomplishment,  for  In 
dian  priests  are  not  to  be  caught  in  time  of  war. 
But  De  la  Warr  undertook  another  part  of  his  in 
structions.  A  hundred  men  under  two  captains 
were  sent  on  a  wild-goose  chase  up  the  James 
River  to  find  gold  or  silver  in  the  mountains, 
whither  the  phantom  of  mines  had  now  betaken 


James  River  Experiments. 


43 


itself.  This  plan  originated  with  the  London  man 
agers  of  Virginia  affairs,  and  men  had  been  sent 
with  De  la  Warr  who  were  supposed  to  be  skill 
ful  in  ''finding  out  mines."  But  being  especially 
unskillful  in  dealing  with  the  Indians,  they  were 
tempted  ashore  by  savages,  who  offered  them  food 
and  slew  them  "  while  the  meate  was  in  theire 
mouthes."  The  expedition  thereupon  turned  back 
at  a  point  about  fort}7  miles  above  the  present  site 
of  Richmond. 

A  new  town  was  begun  at  the  falls,  in  the  fond 
belief  that  two  mines  were  near,  and  De  la  Warr 
took  up  his  residence  there.  Jamestown,  drawing 
its  water  from  a  shallow  and  probably  polluted 
well,  became  the  seat  of  a  fresh  epidemic.  In  the 
month  of  March  following  his  arrival  the  governor 
fled  from  the  colony  to  save  his  own  life,  leaving 
Virginia  more  than  ever  discredited. 

x. 

As  the  hope  of  immediate  profit  from  Virginia 
died  away,  the  colony  would  have  been  abandoned 
if  there  had  not  arisen  in  its  favor  a  patriotic  en 
thusiasm  which  gave  it  a  second  lease  of  life. 
Many  of  the  great  noblemen  were  deeply  engaged 
in  this  new  agitation  in  favor  of  the  unlucky  col 
ony,  and  none  more  deeply,  perhaps,  than  Prince 
Henry,  the  heir  apparent.  At  Henry's  request, 
Sir  Thomas  Dale,  an  officer  who  had  been  em 
ployed  about  the  prince's  person,  and  who  with 
other  English  officers  was  now  in  the  service  of 


CHAP.  II. 


Brief e  Dec 
laration, 
MS.,  Pub. 
Rec.  Off. 


Flight  of 

Dela 

Warr. 


Sir 

Thomas 
Dale,  1611. 


Docs.  Rel. 
to  Col. 
Hist.  N.Y., 
i,  pp.  i,  2, 
3,  9,  Jo, 
16-21. 


44 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


The  heavy 
hand  of 
Dale,  1611- 
1616. 


A  Briefe 
Declara 
tion  of  the 
Plantation 
of  Virginia, 
1624,  MS., 
Pub.  Rec. 
Off. 


Brit.  Mu 
seum,  MS., 

2i,993,  f- 
174. 


the  Netherlands,  was  granted  leave  of  absence  to 
go  to  Virginia.  Since  the  colony  was  a  check  to 
Spain,  the  Netherlands  were  supposed  to  have  an 
indirect  interest  in  the  enterprise  and  were  peri 
suaded  to  continue  Captain  Dale's  pay.  De  la 
Warr,  who  remained  in  England,  was  nominally 
governor ;  Gates,  when  present  in  Virginia,  was 
the  ranking  officer;  but  for  five  years  Dale  ap 
pears  to  have  been  the  ruling  spirit  in  the  colony. 

To  induce  him  to  go,  Dale  had  been  deceived 
regarding  the  condition  of  the  plantation,  as  had 
been  everybody  else  that  had  gone  to  Jamestown 
after  the  first  ships  sailed.  The  vice-admiral,  New 
port,  was  the  principal  reporter  of  Virginia  affairs 
in  England  and  the  principal  agent  of  the  company 
in  this  deception.  Dale's  rough  temper  was  al 
ready  well  known.  It  was  for  this,  no  doubt,  that 
he  had  been  chosen  to  do  a  rude  piece  of  work. 
On  his  arrival  he  saw  the  desperate  state  of  the 
undertaking.  He  pulled  Vice-Admiral  Newport's 
beard  and  threatened  him  with  the  gallows,  de 
manding  "  whether  it  weare  meant  that  people 
heere  in  Virginia  shoulde  feed  uppon  trees." 

Under  the  inefficient  government  of  George 
Percy,  who  had  again  been  placed  in  charge,  the 
seedtime  of  1611  was  allowed  to  pass  without  the 
planting  of  corn.  The  Jamestown  people  were 
found  by  Dale  "at  their  daily  and  usual  work 
bowling  in  the  streets."  But  the  days  of  unthrifty 
idleness  were  at  an  end.  "  The  libertyes,  franchises, 
and  immunityes  of  free  denizens  and  natural-born 


James  River  Experiments. 


45 


subjects  of  any  our  other  dominions  "  promised  to 
the  colonists,  were  also  at  an  end  from  the  moment 
of  the  arrival  of  this  sharp-set  soldier  and  discipli 
narian.  Dale's  pitiless  use  of  martial  law  turned 
Virginia  not  exactly  into  a  military  camp,  but 
rather  into  a  penal  settlement  where  men  suffered 
for  the  crime  of  emigration.  The  men  taken  to 
Virginia  in  Dale's  own  company  were  hardly  fit  for 
anything  else,  and  were  so  "  diseased  and  crazed 
in  their  bodies  "  that  at  one  time  not  more  than 
sixty  out  of  three  hundred  were  capable  of  labor. 
The  food  sent  with  Sir  Thomas  Dale  by  the  cor 
rupt  contractors  was  "  of  such  qualitie  as  hoggs  re 
fused  to  eat."  Sir  Thomas  Gates  afterward  made 
oath  to  its  badness  before  the  Chief  Justice  in 
London. 

XL 

Dale  regarded  himself  as  an  agent  of  the  com 
pany.  His  aim  was  by  hook  or  crook  to  make  the 
hitherto  unprofitable  colony  pay  dividends  to  the 
shareholders,  who  were  his  employers.  His  rela 
tion  to  the  emigrants  was  that  of  a  taskmaster  ;  one 
might,  perhaps,  more  fitly  call  him  a  slave-driver. 
Instead  of  seeking  to  render  the  colony  self-sup 
porting  by  clearing  corn  ground,  he  gave  his  first 
attention  to  lading  vessels  with  sassafras  root,  then 
much  prized  as  a  medicine,  and  cedar  timber,  val 
ued  especially  for  its  odor. 

During  a  part  of  Dale's  time  eight  or  nine 
ounces  of  meal  and  half  a  pint  of  peas  was  the 


CHAP.  II. 


Briefe  Dec 
laration. 


The  years 
of  slavery. 


46 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 

Briefe  Dec 
laration. 
Percy  to 
Northum 
berland, 
Hist.  MS., 
Commis 
sion, 

Kept.,  iii, 
53,  54- 


Observa 
tions  and 
Travel 
from  Lon 
don  to 
Hamburgh, 
P-  J3- 


daily  ration.  In  their  declaration,  made  some  years 
afterward,  the  surviving  colonists  aver  that  both 
the  meal  and  the  peas  were  "  moldy,  rotten,  full  of 
cobwebs  and  maggots,  loathsome  to  man  and  unfit 
for  beasts."  Better  men  than  these  might  have 
been  driven  to  mutiny  by  the  enforced  toil  and 
bad  food.  And  mutiny  and  desertion  were  usually 
but  other  names  for  suicide  under  the  rule  of  the 
pitiless  high  marshal.  Some  fled  to  the  woods, 
hoping  to  reach  a  mythical  Spanish  settlement  be 
lieved  to  be  not  very  far  away.  Dale  set  the  Indi 
ans  on  them,  and  they  were  brought  back  to  be 
burned  at  the  stake.  Others,  who  in  desperation 
or  deadly  homesickness  resolved  to  venture  their 
lives  in  a  barge  and  a  shallop  "  for  their  native 
country,"  suffered  in  various  ways  for  their  temer 
ity.  Death  by  shooting  or  hanging  was  clemency. 
One  offender  was  put  to  death  by  the  awful  torture 
of  breaking  on  the  wheel,  a  penalty  that  Dale  may 
have  learned  during  his  stay  on  the  Continent. 
Taylor,  the  water  poet,  has  left  us  the  sickening 
details  of  such  an  execution  in  Germany  in  1616. 
One  need  not  waste  any  sympathy  on  those  who 
were  hanged  for  stealing  to  satisfy  hunger ;  death 
is  more  merciful  than  life  to  men  in  such  a  case. 
But  one  poor  rogue,  who  thought  to  better  his  ra 
tions  by  niching  two  or  three  pints  of  oatmeal,  had 
a  bodkin  run  through  his  tongue  and  was  chained 
to  a  tree  until  he  perished  of  hunger.  Though 
these  things  were  twice  attested  by  the  best  men 
in  the  colony,  one  prefers  to  make  some  allowance 


James  River  Experiments. 


47 


for  their  passionate  resentment,  and  to  hope  that 
some  of  the  horrors  related  are  exaggerated.  It  is 
hard  to  believe,  for  example,  that  men  unable  to 
work  were  denied  food,  and  left  to  creep  away 
into  the  wretched  burrows  in  the  ground  used  for 
shelter,  there  to  die  unregarded  in  the  general 
misery. 

In  1612  a  company  of  ten  men  sent  out  to  catch 
fish  braved  the  perils  of  the  ocean  in  a  little  bark 
and  got  back  to  England.  It  was  the  only  escape 
from  Dale's  tyranny,  pitiless  and  infernal.  "  Aban 
don  every  hope  who  enter  here "  was  almost  as 
appropriate  to  the  mouth  of  the  James  River  as  to 
the  gate  of  Dante's  hell.  All  letters  of  complaint 
sent  to  England  were  intercepted,  and  all  efforts 
of  friends  of  the  colonists  in  England  to  succor  or 
rescue  them  were  thwarted  by  the  company  in 
London.  The  king's  pass  to  one  of  the  colonists 
authorizing  him  to  leave  Virginia  was  sent  to  him 
by  his  friends  closely  made  up  in  a  garter,  to  avoid 
the  vigilance  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale. 

Dale's  administration  was  strongest  on  its  mili 
tary  side.  There  was  no  danger  that  the  Indians 
would  reduce  the  colony  to  any  straits  while  he 
was  in  charge.  He  gave  his  first  attention  to  forti 
fication,  and  he  even  begged  for  two  thousand  con 
victs  out  of  English  jails  to  form  a  line  of  posts 
from  Hampton  to  a  point  a  hundred  miles  above 
Jamestown.  He  sent  Argall  all  the  way  to  Mount 
Desert  to  plunder  a  Jesuit  settlement  and  make 
prize  of  a  French  ship — an  undertaking  congenial 


CHAP.  II. 


Briefe  Dec 
laration. 


Dale's 
services. 


48 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


to  Dale's  military  temper  and  the  Viking1  tastes  of 
Argall.  As  his  experience  increased,  Dale  came  to 
understand  that  other  than  military  measures  were 
needed  to  found  a  colony,  though  he  never  more 
than  half  comprehended  the  elements  of  the  prob 
lem.  In  his  later  time  he  cleared  more  corn 
ground,  and  he  could  boast  at  his  departure  that 
Virginia  contained  six  horses,  a  hundred  and  forty- 
nine  neat  cattle,  two  hundred  and  sixteen  goats, 
and  hogs  without  number.  Dale  set  off  a  private 
garden  of  three  acres  of  land  to  each  of  the  old 
planters,  on  the  condition  that  they  should  provide 
food  for  themselves  while  still  giving  nearly  all  of 
their  time  to  the  service  of  the  common  stock. 
Even  this  slave's-patch  of  private  interest  given 
to  only  a  fraction  of  the  colonists  put  some  life 
into  Virginia;  but  two  thirds  of  the  people  were 
retained  in  the  old  intolerable  bondage,  and  not 
even  the  most  favored  secured  personal  ownership 
of  land.  Dale's  administration  was  remembered 
as  "  the  five  years  of  slavery." 


XII. 

The  rough-handed  soldier  from  the  Low  Coun 
tries  had  indeed  brought  the  Virginia  chaos  into 
order,  but  it  was  an  order  almost  as  deadly  as  the 
preceding  anarchy.  Dale  confessed  that  the  gov 
ernment  of  Virginia  was  "  the  hardest  task  he  had 
ever  undertaken,"  and  he  got  himself  out  of  it  after 
five  years  by  making  a  theatrical  return  to  England 


James  River  Experiments. 


49 


in  1616  with  a  train  of  Indians,  including  the  "  Prin 
cess"  Pocahontas,  converted,  baptized  with  a  Chris 
tian  name  as  Rebecca,  and  wedded  to  an  English 
man.  He  added  glowing  reports  of  the  country, 
and  proved  all  by  exhibiting  "  at  least  sixteen  sev 
eral  sorts  of  staple  commodities  to  be  raised  in  this 
plantation."  For  greater  effect,  samples  of  twelve 
of  these  products  of  the  colony  were  sold  by  pub 
lic  auction  in  the  open  court  of  the  company. 
Though  Dale  could  show  many  commodities,  some 
of  which  have  never  flourished  in  Virginia  since 
his  time,  he  left  behind  him  not  an  established  com 
munity,  but  a  mere  camp  of  unhappy  men  retained 
in  the  country  by  the  sheer  impossibility  of  getting 
away.  After  nine  years  of  suffering,  Virginia  con 
sisted  of  some  three  hundred  and  twenty-six  men, 
twenty-five  women  and  children,  and  graves  out 
numbering  many  times  over  all  the  living  souls. 

Three  things  had  been  discovered  in  Dale's 
time  that  were  of  importance  to  the  colony.  Dale 
had  by  personal  experiment  learned  the  two  fish 
ing  seasons  in  the  James  River.  The  colonists  had 
begun  the  profitable  cultivation  of  tobacco,  and 
the  economic  success  of  the  colony  was  thereby 
assured.  Lastly,  even  Dale's  small  experiment  with 
private  interest  rendered  the  apportionment  of  the 
land  and  the  establishment  of  private  ownership 
certain  to  come  in  time.  As  early  as  1614  it  was 
estimated  that  three  men  working  for  themselves 
raised  more  corn  than  ten  times  as  many  when  the 
labor  was  for  the  public  stock. 


CHAP.  II. 

Note  10. 


Note  ii. 


Note  12. 


Rise  of  tJie  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Argall's 
govern 
ment. 


XIII. 

Captain  Argall,  who  succeeded  Sir  Thomas 
Dale,  was  a  bold  and  notable  mariner.  He  had 
built  the  first  Virginia  vessel ;  he  had  traded  with 
the  Indians  for  corn  with  as  much  enterprise  and 
address  as  Captain  Smith  had  shown  ;  he  had  in  a 
small  ship  called  the  Dainty  made  the  first  experi 
mental  voyage  to  James  River  by  the  westward 
route,  avoiding  the  long  circuit  by  the  Canaries 
and  West  Indies.  It  had  been  his  fortune  to  be 
the  first  Englishman  to  see  the  American  bison, 
which  he  found  near  the  Potomac.  He  it  was  who 
by  a  shrewd  trick  had  captured  Pocahontas  and 
held  her  as  hostage  ;  and  he  drove  the  French  out 
of  Maine,  despoiling  their  settlement  at  Mount 
Desert.  To  a  mastery  of  all  the  arts  that  make  the 
skillful  navigator  he  added  the  courteous  polite 
ness  of  a  man  of  the  city  and  the  unfaltering 
rapacity  of  a  pirate.  As  governor,  he  robbed  the 
company  with  one  hand  and  the  hapless  colonists 
with  the  other.  While  using  the  ships  and  men  of 
the  colony  to  carry  on  the  Indian  trade,  he  turned 
all  the  profits  of  it  into  his  own  wallet.  The  breed 
ing  animals  of  the  colony  accumulated  by  Dale  he 
sold,  and  made  no  account  of  the  proceeds.  There 
was  hardly  anything  portable  or  salable  in  Vir 
ginia  that  he  did  not  purloin.  He  even  plundered 
the  property  of  Lady  De  la  Warr,  the  widow  of 
his  predecessor.  He  boldly  fitted  out  a  ship  be 
longing  to  Lord  Rich,  and  sent  an  expedition  of 


James  River  Experiments. 


sheer  piracy  to  the  West  Indies  under  an  old  letter 
of  marque  from  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  When  advices 
from  England  warned  Argall  that  his  downfall  was 
imminent,  he  forthwith  redoubled  his  felonious 
diligence.  His  chief  partner  in  England  was  Lord 
Rich,  who  became  the  second  Earl  of  Warwick  in 
1619,  about  the  time  of  Argall's  return,  and  who  is 
known  to  history  in  his  later  character  as  a  great 
Puritan  nobleman,  who  served  God  while  he  con 
trived  to  better  his  estate  with  both  hands  by  such 
means  as  troublous  times  put  within  his  reach. 
He  was  not  content  with  small  pickings.  Rich  ap 
pears  to  have  aimed  at  nothing  less  than  wrecking 
the  company  and  securing  the  land  and  govern 
ment  of  Virginia.  The  first  step  toward  this  was 
to  get  a  charter  for  a  private  or  proprietary  plan 
tation  within  Virginia  which  should  be  exempt 
from  all  authority  of  the  company  and  the  colony. 
This  independent  government  was  to  serve  as  a 
refuge  from  prosecutions  for  Argall  and  other  pi 
ratical  agents,  and  at  last  to  possess  itself  of  the 
wreck  and  remainder  of  Virginia.  The  second 
step  in  this  intrigue  was  one  that  could  have 
availed  nothing  in  any  time  less  respectful  to  shad 
owy  technicalities  and  less  prone  to  legal  chicanery 
than  that  of  James  I.  As  we  have  seen,  jealousy 
was  excited  in  Virginia  by  the  possibility  of  Cap 
tain  Smith's  wedding  Pocahontas  and  setting  up  a 
claim  to  authority  based  on  her  inheritance  from 
Powhatan.  A  tradition  lingered  in  Virginia  a 
hundred  years  later  that  King  James  questioned 


CHAP.  II. 


Lord 
Rich's  in 
trigue. 


Note  13. 


itith,  142. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 


The  Com- 
panie's 
root  of 
difference. 
MS.  Rec. 
Va.  Co., 
May  7, 
1623. 


MS.  Rec. 
Va.  Co., 
passim. 


Rolfe's  right  to  intermarry  with  a  foreign  princess 
without  the  consent  of  his  sovereign.  If  this  had 
any  foundation,  it  grew  out  of  the  value  of  a  pre 
text  in  a  time  of  technicality  and  intrigue.  There 
may  have  been  already  a  scheme  to  trade  upon 
the  hereditary  right  of  Powhatan's  daughter.  Po- 
cahontas  died  in  England,  leaving  an  infant  son. 
Argall,  on  his  arrival,  hastened  to  notify  the  com 
pany  that  Opechankano,  the  brother  and  successor 
of  Powhatan,  had  resolved  not  to  sell  any  more 
land,  but  to  reserve  it  for  the  son  of  Pocahontas 
when  he  should  be  grown.  The  company  charged 
that  this  was  a  ruse  to  serve  the  ends  which  Argall, 
Rich,  and  others  had  in  view.  The  larger  plan 
miscarried,  but  Argall  found  his  prey  so  tempting 
that  he  lingered  longer  than  was  safe,  and  got  away 
in  the  nick  of  time  by  the  aid  of  Lord  Rich,  who 
had  stood  guard  like  a  burglar's  pal,  and  who  con 
trived  to  delay  the  ship  carrying  out  the  new 
governor  until  a  small  swift-sailing  vessel  could  be 
sent  to  fetch  away  Argall  and  his  varied  booty  of 
public  and  private  plunder.  In  that  day  justice 
often  went  by  favor,  and  Argall  consigned  his 
spoils  to  hands  so  powerful  that  the  Virginia  Com 
pany,  stripped  bare  by  his  treacherous  villainy, 
could  never  recover  any  of  its  lost  property.  The 
embittered  colonists  had  the  bootless  satisfaction  of 
sending  over  after  the  runaway  governor  twenty- 
four  bundles  of  accusatory  depositions. 


James  River  Experiments. 


53 


XIV. 

From  the  first  nobody  reaped  any  profit  from 
investments  made  in  the  new  colony  except  the 
clique  of  merchants  who  had  been  allowed  to  sell 
wretched  supplies  for  the  distant  settlers  at  ruin 
ous  rates.  Rich  and  those  interested  with  him  had 
abundantly  reimbursed  themselves  for  all  outlays 
on  their  part.  The  Virginia  Company,  swindled  by 
commercial  peculators  at  home,  robbed  by  a  pirate 
governor  in  America,  and  embarrassed  by  Spanish 
intrigues  at  the  English  court,  had  also  been  de 
prived  of  the  lotteries,  large  and  small,  which  had 
supplied  money  for  sending  eight  hundred  emi 
grants  to  Virginia.  The  lottery,  which  had  fallen 
into  great  disrepute  and  had  suffered  "  many  foul 
aspersions,"  was  abolished  in  compliance  with  a 
public  sentiment.  The  company  was  tottering 
swiftly  to  a  fall ;  vultures  like  Warwick  were  wait 
ing  longingly  for  its  death. 

But  there  set  in  once  more  a  widespread  patri 
otic  movement  in  its  behalf.  Such  movements 
were  characteristic  of  that  vital  age  when  love  of 
country  was  fast  coming  to  count  for  more  as  a 
motive  to  action  than  loyalty  to  the  person  of  a 
prince.  "  Divers  lords,  knights,  gentlemen,  and 
citizens,  grieved  to  see  this  great  action  fall  to 
nothing,"  came  to  its  rescue  with  one  final  effort 
which  resulted  after  some  years  in  putting  the  en 
terprise  well  beyond  the  danger  of  failure.  They 
formed  auxiliary  societies  within  the  Virginia  Com- 


CHAP.  II. 


Fall  of  the 
lottery. 


Note  14. 


Revival  of 

interest, 

1618. 


54 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 


The  Great 

Charter, 

1618. 


Pub.  Rec. 
Off.  Col. 
Papers, 
iii,  40. 
Disc,  of  the 
Old  Va. 
Co. 


pany,  after  the  custom  of  corporations  in  that  day. 
Each  of  these  undertook  to  plant  a  settlement  or 
"  hundred."  In  one  year  the  population  rose  from 
less  than  four  hundred  to  about  a  thousand.  The 
newly  active  element  infused  a  more  liberal  spirit 
into  the  company,  and  set  about  correcting  the 
abuses  in  its  management. 


xv. 

The  movement  of  1618  was  retarded  by  the  dis 
grace  into  which  the  colony  had  fallen.  An  un 
broken  series  of  misfortunes  and  disappointments, 
the  bad  conduct  of  the  company's  affairs,  the  ill 
fame  of  Dale's  remorseless  tyranny,  and  the  fresh 
Argall  scandal,  had  made  Virginia  odious.  One 
convict  to  whom  the  alternative  was  proposed, 
chose  hanging  in  preference  to  transportation  to 
Virginia.  It  was  needful  that  something  should  be 
done  to  restore  credit.  The  men  who  took  the 
lead  in  the  patriotic  movement  of  1618  on  behalf  of 
Virginia  were  mainly  liberal  statesmen — that  Earl 
of  Southampton  who  is  known  as  the  friend  of 
Shakespeare ;  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  one  of  the  great 
est  men  of  a  great  age,  whose  brave  support  of 
popular  liberty  had  lost  him  the  favor  of  the  king ; 
Sir  John  Danvers,  and  others.  The  records  before 
the  election  of  Sandys  in  1619  were  probably  de 
stroyed  to  conceal  the  guilt  of  the  managers.  We 
can  only  conjecture  that  the  rising  influence  of  the 
men  who  were  able  a  few  months  later  to  over- 


James  River  Experiments. 


55 


throw  the  ruling  party  had  much  to  do  with  the 
most  notable  change  that  took  place  in  the  con 
duct  of  affairs  in  the  Virginia  Company  at  this 
time.  On  the  iSth  of  November,  1618 — memora 
ble  but  neglected  and  forgotten  date — the  Virginia 
Company,  acting  within  the  powers  conferred  on 
it  by  its  charter,  granted  to  the  residents  in  Vir 
ginia  a  document  styled  a  "  Qreat^Chartgrjor  Com 
missions  of  Priviledges,  Orders,  and  Lawes."  No 
copy  of  this  instrument  now  exists,  but  some  of  its 
provisions  have  been  preserved.  It  established  a 
legislative  body,  to  consist  of  councilors  of  estate 
and  of  representatives  or  burgesses  chosen  by  the 
several  "plantations"  or  hundreds,  and  it  limited 
the  power  of  the  governor.  This  charter  was  the 
starting  point  of  constitutional  government  in  the 
New  World.  It  contained  in  embryo  the  Ameri 
can  system  of  an  executive  power  lodged  mainly 
in  one  person,  and  a  Legislature  of  two  houses. 
One  might  without  much  exaggeration  call  this 
paper  a  sort  of  Magna  Charta  of  America,  and  it 
was  a  long  and  probably  a  deliberate  step  toward 
popular  government.  If  the  results  that  have  fol 
lowed  it  be  considered,  it  can  hardly  be  accounted 
second  in  importance  to  any  other  state  paper  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 


XVI. 

Not  only  did  this  admirable  charter  establish  a 
representative  form  of  government  and  do  away 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  15. 


Division 
of  land. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 
Note  1 6. 


Aspinwall 
Papers,  p. 
14,  note. 


True  Dec 
laration,  p. 

25- 


The  good 
news  in 
Virginia. 


Note  17. 


Tragicall 
Relation, 
1623. 


with  martial  law,  but  it  fairly  launched  the  Virgin 
ians  on  the  current  of  freedom  and  advancement 
by  authorizing  a  liberal  division  of  land  to  all 
those  who  had  arrived  before  the  departure  of  Sir 
Thomas  Dale.  The  oldest  land  titles  in  Virginia 
are  deduced  from  the  authority  of  the  Great  Char 
ter  of  1618.  Communism,  pernicious  everywhere, 
is  at  its  worst  in  an  infant  settlement.  "  Every 
man  sharked  for  his  own  bootie,"  says  a  writer 
on  Virginia  in  1609,  "  but  was  altogether  careless 
of  the  succeeding  penurie."  The  distribution  of 
land  abolished  the  common  stock  system  of  labor, 
and  opened  a  pathway  to  the  ambition  of  the 
diligent. 

Tidings  of  the  great  change  wrought  in  their 
condition  and  prospects  by  the  new  charter  reached 
the  dwellers  on  the  James  River  in  the  spring  of 
1619,  and  the  colonists  were  "  ravished  with  so 
much  joy  "  that  they  felt  themselves  "  now  fully 
satisfied  for  their  long  labors  and  as  happy  men  as 
there  were  in  the  world."  They  valued  their  lib 
erties  as  no  man  can  who  has  not  known  the  bitter 
ness  of  bondage,  and  in  1623,  when  they  had  reason 
to  fear  the  re-establishment  of  the  old  tyranny,  the 
Virginia  Assembly  petitioned  the  king  in  these 
strong  words :  "  Rather  than  be  reduced  to  live 
under  the  like  government,  we  desire  his  Majesty 
that  commissioners  may  be  sent  over  to  hang  us." 
We  have  here,  perhaps,  the  very  first  of  the  many 
protests  of  colonial  Legislatures  against  oppres 
sion  from  England. 


James  River  Experiments. 


57 


XVII. 

In  1618,  before  the  adoption  of  the  charter,  it 
was  concluded,  in  the  quaint  phrase  of  the  time, 
"that  a  plantation  can  never  flourish  till  families  be 
planted  and  the  respects  of  Wives  and  Children  fix 
the  people  on  the  soyle,"  or,  in  simpler  words,  that 
a  colony  of  bachelors  can  hardly  found  a  state. 
The  first  ship  laden  with  home-makers  carried  over 
ninety  maids,  and  the  company  thought  it  neces 
sary  to  promise  special  rewards  to  the  men  who 
should  marry  these  young  women.  If  the  maids 
were  as  certified,  "  young,  handsome,  and  well  rec 
ommended,"  they  needed  no  such  dowry  in  a  land 
that  had  hardly  a  woman  in  it.  Young  or  old, 
handsome  or  homely,  the  maids  did  not  prove  a 
drug.  Shipload  after  shipload  of  them  were  eager 
ly  bought  by  the  planters,  who  had  to  pay  a  round 
sum  in  the  high-priced  tobacco  of  that  early  time 
to  defray  the  cost  of  transporting  these  wives. 
Besides  having  to  pay  for  his  wife,  the  planter 
could  have  her  only  on  the  condition  of  winning 
her  consent ;  and  the  eager  courtship  that  ensued 
on  the  arrival  of  a  shipload  of  maids  must  have 
been  one  of  the  most  amusing  scenes  in  the  set 
tlement  of  America.  Suitors  far  outnumbered  the 
women,  and  the  latter  had  things  pretty  much  their 
own  way.  The  first  cargo  of  this  interesting  mer 
chandise  was  landed  in  1619,  but  as  late  as  1624 
the  women  were  probably  in  danger  of  setting  the 
colonists  by  the  ears,  for  the  governor  felt  obliged 


CHAP.  II. 


The  send 
ing  of 
wives  to 
Virginia. 


Note  18. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Note  19. 


The  strug 
gle  ended, 
1624. 


to  issue  a  proclamation  threatening  fine  or  whip 
ping  for  the  offense  of  betrothal  to  more  than  one 
person  at  a  time.  In  1632,  thirteen  years  after  the 
first  shipment,  we  find  the  colony  still  being  re 
plenished  with  women  sent  in  the  same  fashion. 
In  that  year,  two,  whose  behavior  during  the  voy 
age  had  been  disgraceful,  were  sent  back  as  unfit 
to  be  mothers  of  Virginians.  The  precaution  could 
not  have  been  of  much  practical  use,  but  it  indi 
cates  the  early  growth  of  a  wholesome  local  pride. 
When  there  were  house  mothers  in  the  cabins,  and 
children  born  in  the  country,  the  settlers  no  longer 
dreamed  of  returning  to  England  ;  and  there  was 
soon  a  young  generation  that  knew  no  other  skies 
than  those  that  spanned  the  rivers,  fields,  and  vast 
primeval  forests  of  their  native  Virginia,  which 
now  for  the  first  time  became  a  home. 


XVIII. 

It  is  not  the  Virginia  colony  alone  that  we  have 
seen  in  the  crucible.  The  fate  of  English  coloniza 
tion  was  no  doubt  settled  by  the  experiments  made 
during  the  first  years  on  the  James  River,  and  the 
story  told  in  this  chapter  is  but  the  overture  to  the 
whole  history  of  life  in  the  United  States.  In  our 
colonizing  age  a  settlement  might  be  made  in  the 
heart  of  Africa  with  a  far  smaller  loss  of  life  than 
was  incurred  in  the  first  sixteen  years  in  Virginia. 
From  1607  to  1623  there  were  landed  in  Virginia 
more  than  six  thousand  people.  The  number  that 


James  River  Experiments. 


59 


returned  to  England  was  inconsiderable,  but  in  the 
year  1624,  when  the  colony  passed  under  a  royal 
government,  there  remained  alive  in  the  colony 
only  twelve  hundred  and  seventy-five.  Of  those 
who  came  in  these  early  years  four  fifths  perished. 
A  part  of  this  loss  was  due  to  radically  wrong  con 
ceptions  of  the  nature,  end,  and  proper  methods  of 
colonization,  a  part  to  corrupt  and  incompetent 
management  in  the  London  Company.  The  bad 
character  of  many  of  the  earliest  emigrants  was 
one  cause  of  difficulty.  The  writers  of  the  time 
probably  exaggerated  this  evil  in  order  to  excuse 
the  severity  of  the  government  and  the  miseries 
into  which  the  settlers  fell.  But  the  loss  of  many 
of  the  early  comers  must  be  accounted  a  distinct 
gain  to  Virginia.  Unfitted  for  their  environment, 
they  were  doomed  to  extinction  by  that  pitiless 
law  which  works  ever  to  abolish  from  the  earth 
the  improvident,  the  idle,  and  the  vicious. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

In  1889,  when  I  visited  Jamestown,  there  was  no  apparent 
trace  of  Sandy  Beach  which  had  connected  the  island  with  the 
mainland.  This  bit  of  sand,  in  the  antique  phrase  of  one  of  the 
early  colonists,  was  "  no  broader  than  a  man  may  well  quaite  a 
tileshard."  Strachey,  in  Purchas,  p.  1752.  Jamestown  is  now 
a  farm  ;  the  ruins  .of  the  church  and  many  of  the  tombs  in  the 
eighteenth-century  churchyard  remain  ;  but  the  upper  end  of  the 
island  is  wearing  away,  and  I  picked  out  of  the  crumbling  sand, 
far  from  the  later  burying  place,  human  bones  of  earlier  burials, 
possibly  of  the  victims  of  the  famines  and  epidemics.  The  walls 
of  the  magazine  had  been  exposed  by  erosion.  I  brought  away 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  i, 
page  29. 


6o 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


wrought  nails,  bits  of  glass  grown  iridescent  from  long  burial, 
and  an  exploded  bombshell  of  so  small  a  caliber  as  to  mark 
its  antiquity.  By  the  aid  of  a  negro  youth  living  on  the  farm 
I  found  the  hearth  bricks  turned  up  in  various  places  by  the 
plow,  and  the  arrangement,  or  rather  lack  of  arrangement,  of 
the  town  could  thus  be  made  out.  My  guide  volunteered  the  in 
formation  that  Jamestown  was  "  the  first  place  discovered  after 
the  Flood."  Some  drawings  made  at  the  time  were  reproduced 
with  an  article  on  Nathaniel  Bacon  in  the  Century  Magazine  for 
July,  1890. 

Whether  Smith  was  injured  by  gunpowder  and  required  treat 
ment,  as  he  asserts,  or  was  sent  home  under  charges,  has  been 
matter  of  dispute.  Both  accounts  are  correct,  as  is  shown  by 
the  testimony  of  an  important  manuscript  at  Petworth  House,  in 
Surrey,  which  I  was  allowed  to  examine  by  the  courtesy  of  Lord 
Leconsfield.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  George  Percy,  a  brother  of 
the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  who  was  chosen  to  succeed  Smith 
on  his  departure  from  the  colony.  It  is  not  the  narrative  from 
which  Purchas  makes  extracts,  but  a  sequel  to  it.  The  title  is 
"  A  Trewe  Relacyon  of  the  pceedinge  and  Ocvrrentes  of  mo- 
mente  wch  have  hapned  in  Virginia  from  the  Tyme  Sr  Thomas 
Gates  was  shipwrackde  vpon  the  Bermudes  Ano.  1609  vntill  my 
depture  ovtt  of  the  country  wch  was  in  Ano  Dni  1612."  It  is  a 
quarto  of  forty-one  pages.  Percy  was  a  man  of  courage,  but 
his  own  narrative  in  this  little  book  shows  that  he  had  no  quali 
fication  for  the  office  of  governor  except  the  rank  of  his  family. 
His  ill  health  is  made  an  excuse  for  his  inefficiency,  but  Dale's 
letter  of  May  25,  1611,  shows  that  even  the  horrible  events  of 
Percy's  first  government  had  not  taught  him  to  plant  corn  when 
again  left  in  charge.  Percy  naturally  resents  Smith's  boast- 
fulness,  and  bluntly  accuses  him  of  laying  claim  to  credit  that 
was  not  his.  The  charge  that  Smith,  unable  to  control  the  un 
ruly  settlers  at  the  Falls  under  West,  advised  the  Indians  to  at 
tack  them,  is  supported  by  Percy ;  and  a  very  different  charge, 
that  he  stirred  up  the  Indians  to  assassinate  West  himself,  ap 
pears  at  a  later  time  in  Spelman's  Relation,  a  tract  that  bears 
abundant  internal  evidence  of  the  writer's  mental  inability  to 
speak  the  truth.  Percy  himself  relates  that  the  Indians  were 
already  hostile  to  West's  party,  and  that  they  had  wounded  and 
killed  some  of  West's  men  in  resentment  of  their  wanton  out 
rages,  See  also  the  account  in  the  Oxford  Tract,  with  the  sig- 


James  River  Experiments. 


61 


natures  of  Pots  and  Phettiplace,  for  Smith's  version  of  the  affair. 
"  Bloody-mindedness  "  seems  not  to  have  been  a  trait  of  Smith. 
But  the  exigency  was  a  terrible  one,  for  death  by  starvation  was 
already  impending,  and  only  the  restoration  of  discipline  at  any 
cost  could  have  saved  the  colony  from  the  horrible  fate  it  met. 
Such  a  course  would  not  have  done  much  violence  to  the  notions 
of  the  time,  and  would  have  found  precedents  in  the  various  plots 
against  the  lives  of  Smith,  Wingfield,  and  others  in  the  colony. 
It  is  quite  probable,  however,  that  there  is  no  truth  in  the  story. 
The  violent  hatred  of  the  factions  will  account  for  the  suspicion. 

Captain  Smith's  True  Relation  was  sent  from  Virginia  and 
was  printed  in  London  in  1608.  In  1612  he  published  what  is 
commonly  referred  to  as  the  Oxford  Tract.  Its  proper  title  is 
very  long.  The  first  part  of  it  is  as  follows  :  "  Map  of  Virginia, 
with  a  description  of  the  Covntry,  the  Commodities,  People,  Gov 
ernment,  and  Religion.  Written  by  Captain  Smyth,  sometime 
Governor  of  the  Covntry.  And  wherevnto  is  annexed  the  pro 
ceedings  of  those  colonies  since  their  first  departure  from  Eng 
land,"  etc.  The  second  part  of  the  book  professes  to  be  taken 
from  the  writings  of  eight  of  the  colonists,  whose  names  are  given, 
and  to  have  been  edited  by  W.  S.— that  is,  the  Reverend  Dr. 
Symonds.  A  history  of  Virginia  was  first  proposed  in  a  well- 
considered  speech  by  "  Mr.  Smith  "  at  a  meeting  of  the  Virginia 
Company,  April  12,  1621.  This  seems  to  have  been  not  Captain 
Smith,  but  John  Smith  of  Nibley.  He  suggested  the  writing  of  a 
history  to  preserve  the  memory  of  the  worthies  of  Virginia,  dead 
and  living,  and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  no  Spanish  settlement 
of  the  same  age  afforded  matter  more  interesting.  "  Which 
worthy  speech,"  says  the  record,  "  had  of  the  whole  court  a  very 
great  applause  as  spoken  freely  to  a  speciall  purpose,  and  there 
fore  thought  fitt  to  be  considered  and  put  in  practice  in  his  due 
time.  And  for  which  also  Mr.  Smyth  as  preferring  allwaies 
mocions  of  speciall  consequence  was  exceedingly  commended." 
MS.  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company,  i,  197-200.  We  have  no 
means  of  knowing  whether  or  not  this  suggestion  had  any  rela 
tion  to  the  production  of  Captain  John  Smith's  Generall  Historic, 
the  first  edition  of  which  appeared  in  1624,  the  last  two  editions 
in  1632.  The  book  is  a  compilation  of  Smith's  earlier  works,  some 
what  expanded,  not  to  say  inflated.  The  later  portions  are  mostly 
made  up  from  the  official  and  guasi'-officia]  pamphlets.  Just  what 
was  Dr.  Symonds's  part  in  the  preparation  of  the  Oxford  Tract 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  3, 
page  38. 


62 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


and  the  Generall  Historie  it  would  be  interesting  to  know.  Its  de 
scriptive  portions  are  of  high  value,  and  we  are  now  able  to  con 
trol  its  historical  errors  to  a  certain  extent.  Besides  these  three 
works  on  Virginia,  Smith  published  a  Description  of  New  Eng 
land,  1616,  New  England's  Trials,  1620,  and  Advertisements  for 
the  Unexperienced  Planters  of  New  England  or  Elsewhere,  in 
1631,  the  year  of  his  death.  These  all  contain  valuable  matter 
relating  to  Virginia.  He  also  published  in  1627  two  works  on 
seamanship,  a  Sea  Grammar,  and  the  Accidence  or  Pathway  to 
Experience  necessary  for  a  Young  Seaman.  In  1630  he  pub 
lished  his  True  Travels,  a  book  which  contains  an  account  of  his 
own  adventures  previous  to  his  going  to  Virginia.  More  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  had  elapsed  between  the  occurrence  of  these 
adventures  and  their  publication.  Smith's  vivid  imagination  had 
meantime  no  doubt  greatly  magnified  his  own  exploits.  It  is 
quite  impossible  at  this  day  to  sift  what  truth  there  is  in  the  True 
Travels  from  the  exaggerations.  Travelers  in  that  time  were  not 
held  to  a  very  rigid  account,  and  their  first  obligation  seems  to 
have  been  to  amuse  their  readers.  No  distinct  line  had  yet  been 
drawn  in  literature  between  fact  and  fiction. 

Many  years  ago,  before  I  had  had  an  opportunity  to  examine 
and  compare  all  his  writings,  I  rashly  printed  a  brief  argument  in 
favor  of  the  trustworthiness  of  Captain  John  Smith  and  the  credi 
bility  of  the  Pocahontas  story.  I  believe  no  person  of  critical 
judgment  can  make  a  thorough  comparison  of  Smith's  successive 
books  without  being  convinced  of  the  ineradicable  tendency  of  his 
mind  to  romance  in  narrating  adventure,  especially  his  own  ad 
venture.  Even  his  style  where  his  vanity  speaks  loses  something 
of  its  native  directness  and  force.  His  practical  writings  on 
navigation  and  on  the  proper  conduct  of  colonization,  and  his 
descriptions  of  the  country  and  the  savages,  are  plain,  direct, 
and  lucid.  His  personal  morals  were  probably  unexception 
able.  One  of  his  associates  certifies  to  his  freedom  from  tobacco, 
wines,  dice,  debts,  and  oaths.  But  a  comparison  between  the 
statements  made  in  the  Oxford  Tract  and  those  in  the  Generall 
Historie  leaves  upon  the  mind  of  the  critic  a  distinct  impression 
of  the  very  processes  by  which  his  adventures  were  exaggerated 
in  his  own  memory  as  time  elapsed.  The  three  or  four  hundred 
savages  on  the  Potomac  (Oxford  Tract,  p.  32,  a  sufficiently  mar 
velous  story)  rise  to  three  or  four  thousand  in  the  Generall  His 
torie.  Pocahontas  becomes  the  central  figure  in  incidents  as  told 
in  1624  in  which  she  had  no  place  in  1612.  There  is  but  one  al- 


James  River  Experiments. 


lusion  to  Pocahontas  in  the  entire  Oxford  Tract  p.  103),  and  that 
has  to  do  with  the  charge  that  Smith  intended  to  marry  her.  A 
just  and  witty  judgment  of  Captain  Smith  was  made  almost  in 
his  own  time  by  Thomas  Fuller.  He  says :  "  Such  his  perils, 
preservations,  dangers,  deliverances,  they  seem  to  most  men  be 
yond  belief,  to  some  beyond  truth.  Yet  we  have  two  witnesses 
to  attest  them,  the  prose  and  the  pictures,  both  in  his  own  book  ; 
and  it  soundeth  much  to  the  diminution  of  his  deeds  that  he 
alone  is  the  herald  to  publish  and  proclaim  them.  .  .  .  However, 
moderate  men  must  allow  Captain  Smith  to  have  been  very  in 
strumental  in  settling  the  plantation  in  Virginia,  whereof  he  was 
Governor,  as  also  admiral  of  New  England."  Fuller's  Worthies, 
edition  of  1840,  i,  276.  Those  who  desire  to  see  an  ingenious 
and  learned  defense  of  Captain  Smith,  particularly  in  the  matter 
of  the  Pocahontas  story,  will  find  it  in  an  address  by  Mr.  William 
Wirt  Henry,  published  by  the  Virginia  Historical  Society.  Prof. 
Arber's  discussion  of  the  subject  in  his  edition  of  Smith's  Works 
is  sentimental  rather  than  critical.  Compare  Deane's  \Vingfield 
for  the  other  side.  Unnecessary  heat  has  characterized  some  of 
the  debates  about  John  Smith.  History  pitched  in  a  shrill  polem 
ical  key  is  not  instructive  and  is  something  less  than  amusing. 
These  debates  center  themselves  on  the  Pocahontas  story,  which 
is  of  little  historical  importance  except  as  it  involves  the  trust 
worthiness  of  Smith's  narrative. 

The  conduct  of  Captain  Smith  in  the  Virginia  colony  will  be 
better  understood  if  we  appreciate  the  character  of  his  principal 
opponent,  Gabriel  Archer.  Archer's  return  to  Virginia  in  1609 
and  his  agency  in  overthrowing  Captain  Smith  are  alluded  to  ap 
parently  in  a  passage  in  the  New  Life  of  Virginea,  1612,  "In 
which  distemper  that  envious  man  stept  in,  sowing  plentifull 
tares  in  the  hearts  of  all,"  etc.  One  of  Archer's  schemes  seems 
to  have  been  to  establish  a  parliament  and  a  complicated  govern 
ment  at  the  beginning.  Purchas  and  Strachey  both  take  sides 
against  Archer  in  his  controversy  with  Smith.  Purchas,  iv,  p. 
1749,  Oxford  Tract,  22.  Wingfield  warned  Newport  of  the  dan 
ger  of  disturbance  from  Archer,  who  was  "  troubled  with  an  am 
bitious  spirit."  Wingfield's  Discourse,  77,  94,  95.  Wingfield 
also  says,  "  In  all  their  disorders  was  Mr.  Archer  a  ringleader." 
He  adds  that  Radcliffe  "  did  wear  no  other  eies  or  eares  than  grew 
on  Mr.  Archer's  head."  For  a  bibliographical  account  of  Smith's 
works  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  valuable  notes  in  Mr.  Winsor's 
Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  vol.  iii,  passim. 


CHAP.  II. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


In  the  note  above,  as  it  appeared  in  the  first  impression  of 
this  volume,  I  attributed  to  Captain  John  Smith  certain  speeches 
and  motions  made  by  a  Mr.  John  Smyth  or  Smith  in  the  Virginia 
Company.  Those  who  had  examined  the  Manuscript  Records 
before  me  had  made  the  same  attribution.  But  soon  after  the 
appearance  of  this  volume  I  met  by  accident  with  Quaritch's 
Rough  List  No.  87,  and  from  the  list  of  papers  of  John  Smith  of 
Nibley  therein  it  became  probable  that  he  and  not  the  unfortunate 
Captain  Smith  had  made  these  wise  speeches. 

A  Trewe  Relacyon,  etc.,  at  Petworth  House,  as  above.  The 
Indians  in  sheer  wantonness  scraped  out  the  brains  of  their 
dead  victims  with  mussel  shells.  Percy  seems  to  have  retaliated 
in  a  way  to  exasperate  without  disabling  the  savages.  He 
"  burned  their  hawses,  Ransacked  their  Temples,  tooke  downe 
the  corpses  off  their  deade  Kings  from  off  their  Toambes  [that  is, 
the  scaffold  on  which  their  well-dried  remains  were  deposited], 
and  caryed  away  their  pearles,  caps,  and  bracelets  wherewith 
they  doe  decore  their  Kings  fvneralls."  (For  this  sacred  house 
thus  desecrated  by  Percy  the  Indians  had  such  reverence  that 
none  but  priests  and  chiefs  were  allowed  to  enter,  and  the  Indi 
ans  never  ventured  to  pass  it  without  casting  some  offering  of 
tobacco,  wampum,  copper,  or  puccoon  root  into  the  water. — 
Strachey,  90.)  When  Percy  had  captured  a  chief's  wife  and 
children,  the  soldiers  in  revengeful  wantonness,  according  to 
Percy's  account,  threw  the  children  out  of  the  boat  and  shot 
them  in  the  water.  The  inefficient  Percy  was  able  to  save  the 
life  of  the  "queen"  or  chiet's  wife  with  difficulty.  West  and 
Ratcliffe,  who  had  overthrown  Smith,  are  accused  by  Percy  of 
unnecessary  cruelty  to  the  savages.  West  sailed  away  in  the 
ship,  leaving  Jamestown  to  its  fate.  Ratcliffe  was  put  to  death 
with  exquisite  tortures.  There  is  no  doubt  some  truth,  as  there  is 
certainly  jealousy,  in  Percy's  charge  that  Captain  Smith  was  "  an 
ambitious,  unworthy,  and  vainglorious  fellow,  attempting  to  take 
all  men's  authorities  from  them,"  but  he  was  neither  weak,  like 
Percy  and  Ratcliffe,  nor  visionary,  like  the  gold-hunting  Martin 
and  the  doctrinary  and  demagogical  Archer,  nor  treacherous  and 
cruel,  like  West.  With  all  his  faults  he  only  \vas  master  of  the 
situation  in  these  early  years.  Percy  admits  that  the  lawful  au 
thority  was  that  of  Smith.  The  history  of  the  government  of 
Percy  and  his  supporters  seems  to  justify  Smith's  refusal  to  share 
his  lawful  power  with  incompetent  factionaries. 


James  River  Experiments. 


So  far  the  State  Papers,  but  Percy,  in  his  A  Trewe  Relacyon, 
adds  that  he  caused  the  man  to  be  tortured  till  he  confessed,  and 
he  relates  repulsive  details  of  the  crime.  The  effrontery  of  an 
official  publication  went  so  far  as  to  deny  (True  Declaration, 
1610),  on  the  authority  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  this  fact  so  cir 
cumstantially  and  abundantly  attested.  In  Peckard's  Life  of 
Ferrar,  p.  1 58,  a  petition  from  the  Virginia  colony  to  the  king  is 
preserved  in  which  occur  these  words  :  "  To  tell  how  great  things 
many  of  us  have  suffered  through  hunger  alone  would  be  as  in 
credible  as  horrible  for  us  to  repeat  to  your  sacred  ears." 

See,  among  other  authorities,  A  Plaine  Declaration'of  Barmu- 
das,  in  black  letter,  1613,  written  by  one  of  the  party.  Myriads 
of  birds  nested  on  the  island.  How  the  hogs  came  to  be  there  is 
matter  of  conjecture.  The  writer  of  the  Plaine  Declaration  makes 
old  Sir  George  Somers  the  resourceful  hero  of  their  marvelous 
escape,  and  it  was  from  him  that  the  islands  took  the  name  of 
Somers  or  Summer  Islands.  For  want  of  pitch,  the  seams  of  the 
vessels  were  paid  with  "  a  kind  of  hard  lime"  and  some  "wax 
cast  up  by  the  sea."  Strachey's  A  True  Repertory  of  the  Wracke 
and  Redemption  of  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  Knight,  etc.,  Purchas, 
iv,  p.  1734,  is  also  by  one  of  the  shipwrecked  party.  The  Rev. 
Joseph  Hunter  has  written  with  much  learning,  patient  research, 
and  fatiguing  prolixity  to  disprove  the  theory  that  Shakespeare's 
Tempest  was  suggested  by  the  wreck  of  Gates  and  Somers.  He 
succeeds  in  showing  its  relation  to  another  occurrence,  but  works 
of  imagination  do  not  usually  have  their  origin  in  a  single  fact, 
and  it  is  hard  to  resist  the  conviction  that  the  Tempest,  as  we 
have  it,  contains  more  than  one  allusion  to  the  wreck  upon  "  the 
still  vexed  Bermoothes." 

The  beauty  of  the  wood  of  certain  American  trees  had  already 
been  noted.  The  communion  table  in  Jamestown  in  De  la  Warr's 
time  was  made  of  black  walnut.  The  pews  were  of  cedar,  and 
there  were  "  fair,  broad  windows,"  with  shutters  of  cedar,  "  to 
shut  and  open  as  the  weather  shall  occasion,"  but  there  appears 
to  have  been  no  glass.  Window  glass  was  little  used  at  that 
time,  and  there  probably  was  not  a  glazed  window  in  the  colony. 
The  pulpit  was  of  cedar,  and  the  font  was  "  hewen  hollow  like  a 
canoa."  Strachey,  in  Purchas,  p.  1755. 

Some  families  appear  to  have  gone  to  Virginia  with  De  la 
Warr.     The  purpose  to  send  families  of  wives  and  children  and 
servants  is  expressed  in  A  True  Declaration,  which  was  dated 
6 


CHAP.  II. 

Note  5, 
page  39. 


Note  6, 
page  41, 


Note  7, 
page  42. 


Note  8, 
page  42. 


66 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


1610,  but,  as  Mr.  Alexander  Brown  points  out,  issued  in  Decem 
ber,  1609. 

The  Tragicall  Relation  of  1623,  and  the  Briefe  Declaration  of 
1624,  manuscripts  in  the  British  Public  Record  Office,  are  the 
most  important  authorities  for  the  facts  given  in  the  text.  The 
Briefe  Declaration  is  rather  the  fuller,  but  the  earlier  paper  sup 
plies  some  particulars.  These  two  formal  documents  are  not 
from  the  same  hand,  and  the  slight  difference  between  them  in 
details  tends  rather  to  confirm  than  to  shake  the  reader's  confi 
dence  in  their  testimony.  The  names  of  Sir  Francis  Wyatt, 
George  Sandys,  and  other  prominent  colonists  appended  to  the 
Tragicall  Relation  are  a  guarantee  of  its  good  faith.  It  is  curi 
ous  to  note  that  Raphe  Hamor,  whose  relation  is  so  favorable  to 
Dale,  and  who  held  the  post  of  secretary  under  Dale  and  that  of 
vice-admiral  under  Argall,  signs  this  paper,  which  is  a  severe 
impeachment  of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe's  administration  of  the  af 
fairs  of  the  company  before  1619.  Hamor's  True  Discourse  has 
heretofore  usually  been  taken  as  an  authority,  but  after  reading 
the  documents  in  the  Public  Record  Office  one  is  compelled  to 
believe  that  Hamor,  or  perhaps  one  might  say  Dale,  under  cover 
of  his  secretary,  misrepresents  the  state  of  the  colony,  and  makes 
promises  to  those  who  may  emigrate  that  it  was  hardly  possible 
to  carry  out.  The  Discourse  of  the  old  Virginia  Company  (Colo 
nial  Papers,  iii,  40),  and  other  papers  in  the  Public  Record  Office 
relating  to  the  strife  between  the  company  and  the  Court,  throw 
light  on  this  period.  The  half-apologies  for  Dale's  cruelties  in 
Smith's  Generall  Historic,  book  iv,  prove  their  existence.  "  For 
amongst  them,  so  hardened  in  evil,"  says  this  writer,  "  the  fear  of 
a  cruel,  painful,  and  unusual  death  more  restrains  them  than 
death  itself."  See  also  Hamor,  p.  27.  There  is  a  letter  from 
Whitaker  appended  to  Hamor's  Discourse.  Though  apparently 
an  incidental  letter,  it  bears  marks  of  having  been  procured  for 
purposes  of  vindication.  Its  defensive  tone  goes  to  show  that 
the  character  of  Dale's  tyranny  had  transpired  in  England. 
Whitaker  praises  Sir  Thomas  Dale  mainly  for  being  religious  and 
valiant,  and  says  that  he  had  "great  knowledge  in  Divinity  and 
good  conscience  in  all  his  doings  ;  both  which  bee  rare  in  a  mar- 
tiall  man."  In  Whitaker's  Good  Newes  of  Virginia,  1613,  there 
is  no  praise  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale.  That  Dale  was  famous  for  his 
severity  before  he  left  Europe  is  manifest  from  the  phrase  used 
by  the  Jesuit  Biard,  "  Le  Mareschal  Thomas  Deel  que  vous  auez 
ouy  estre  fort  aspre  en  ses  humeurs."  Relation,  chap,  xxxiii. 


James  River  Experiments. 


See  in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter  the  whole  account  of  his 
savage  temper  toward  his  French  prisoners,  etc.  It  has  been 
the  custom  of  our  older  writers  to  speak  of  Dale's  administration 
only  in  praise,  but  careful  weighing  of  the  original  authorities 
shows  that  Dale  was  utterly  pitiless  in  the  cruelty  of  his  disci 
pline  and  unjust  in  his  detention  of  the  old  planters,  and  that 
when  he  left  the  colony  he  was  more  generally  execrated  than 
any  other  man  that  ruled  in  these  early  days,  not  even  excepting 
his  successor,  Argall.  Dale's  severity  was  serviceable  in  carrying 
the  enterprise  through  straits,  but  the  reports  of  his  harshness 
brought  the  colony  into  disrepute  and  checked  immigration.  The 
detestation  of  Dale  was  shared  by  the  best  men  in  Virginia,  yet  it 
is  to  be  remembered  that  the  savagery  of  Dale's  government  was 
due  not  wholly  to  the  brutal  temper  of  the  man,  but  partly  to  the 
age  and  the  school  in  which  he  had  been  bred.  Legal  torture  was 
in  use  long  after  this.  The  Clarendon  Papers,  quoted  by  Southey, 
state  that  at  Henley-on-Thames,  as  late  as  1646,  it  was  ordered 
that  a  woman's  tongue  should  be  nailed  to  a  tree  for  complaining 
of  the  tax  levied  by  Parliament.  The  cruel  practices  of  the  agents 
of  the  Virginia  Company  are  paralleled  by  those  of  the  East  In 
dia  Company  at  the  same  time.  "  Before  they  were  intrusted 
with  martial  law  they  made  it  a  rule  to  whip  to  death  or  starve 
to  death  those  of  whom  they  wished  to  get  rid."  Mills,  British 
India,  i,  38.  Even  that  champion  of  popular  liberty,  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  found  it  in  his  heart  to  approve  of  Dale's  course  while 
admitting  its  harshness.  He  said  to  the  court  of  the  Virginia 
Company  of  the  i/th  of  November,  1619,  that  "  Sir  Thomas  Dale, 
building  upon  these  foundations  with  great  and  constant  severity, 
reclaymed  almost  miraculously  those  idle  and  disordered  people, 
and  reduced  them  to  labor  and  an  honest  fashion  of  life."  MS. 
Records  of  the  Virginia  Company.  Compare  also  Sir  Thomas 
Smythe's  defense,  note  to  Aspinwall  Papers  in  IV  Massachusetts 
Historical  Collections,  ix,  p.  i.  My  citations  from  the  Tragicall 
Relation  and  Briefe  Declaration  are  partly  from  the  originals  in 
the  British  Public  Record  Office,  which  I  carefully  examined  in 
1885,  but  the  first  of  these  is  printed  in  Neill's  Virginia  Company, 
and  the  Briefe  Declaration  was  published  by  the  State  of  Vir 
ginia  in  1874  in  a  Senate  document  entitled  Colonial  Records  of 
Virginia.  Very  good  abstracts  of  both  papers  appear  in  Sains- 
bury's  Calendar.  I  cite  the  Discourse  of  the  Old  Virginia  Com 
pany  from  the  MS.  in  the  British  Public  Record  Office.  I  do  not 
remember  to  have  seen  it  in  print. 


CHAP.  II. 


68 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


Birch's  Court  of  James  I,  i,  415.  Chamberlain  to  Carleton, 
June  22,  1616  :  "  Sir  Thomas  Dale  is  arrived  from  Virginia,  and 
brought  with  him  some  ten  or  twelve  old  and  young  of  that  coun 
try,  among  whom  is  Pocahuntas,  daughter  of  Powhatan,  married 
to  one  Rolfe,  an  Englishman.  I  hear  not  of  any  other  riches  or 
matter  of  worth,  but  only  some  quantity  of  sassafras,  tobacco, 
pitch,  tar,  and  clapboard,  things  of  no  great  value  unless  there 
were  plenty,  and  nearer  hand.  All  I  can  hear  of  it  is,  that  the 
country  is  good  to  live  in,  if  it  were  stored  with  people,  and  might 
in  time  become  commodious.  But  there  is  no  present  profit  to 
be  expected." 

The  Discourse  of  the  Old  Virginia  Company,  an  exceedingly 
interesting  manuscript  in  the  British  Record  Office,  makes  it  ap 
pear  that  as  late  as  1618  the  colonists  had  no  thought  of  staying 
in  Virginia,  and  even  the  directors  at  home  were  interested  only 
in  making  money  out  of  tobacco  and  sassafras,  with  little  or  no 
care  to  plant  a  permanent  colony.  Some  allowance  must  be 
made,  perhaps,  for  the  ex-parte  nature  of  this  paper,  but  its  tone 
and  the  high  character  of  those  who  offered  it  give  reason  to  trust 
it.  Colonial  Papers,  iii,  40.  Answer  of  the  Virginia  Company  to 
Queries  of  the  Privy  Council  in  1625. 

We  may  trust  Hamor's  True  Discourse,  p.  17,  for  some  of 
these  details,  though  the  book  generally  is  discredited  by  the 
account  given  in  the  Tragicall  Relation,  which  Hamor  himself 
signed  with  others  in  1623.  A  comparison  of  all  these  authori 
ties  makes  it  evident  that  only  eighty-one  who  were  ranked  as 
"farmers"  derived  any  benefit  from  Dale's  three-acre  division, 
while  about  two  hundred  others  were  probably  left  in  unmitigated 
bondage. 

"  And  to  protect  Captain  Argall  from  being  called  to  an  ac 
count  for  his  government  under  shew  of  a  new  plantation  to  be 
set  up  in  Virginia  by  Captain  Argall  and  his  partners,  whereof 
the  said  earl  (Warwick)  hath  since  appeared  to  be  one  (which  yet 
to  this  day  hath  had  no  beginning),  there  was  procured  a  patent 
to  the  said  captain  and  his  associates  for  the  said  new  plantation  ; 
whereby  he  and  his  Company,  their  heirs  and  assigns  (save  only 
in  time  of  defence  by  war),  were  exempted  from  all  power,  author 
ity,  and  jurisdiction  to  be  from  hence  derived  or  there  established, 
that  so  he  might  reign  there  as  great  and  absolute  master,  with 
out  law  or  controulment,  and  without  the  fear  of  ever  being  called 
to  any  future  reckoning.  .  .  .  Whatsoever  was  remaining  at  that 


James  River  Experiments. 


time  in  the  colony  belonging  to  the  public  ...  he  converted  it 
in  a  manner  wholly  to  his  own  private  use  and  possession,  the 
very  public  lands  cultivated,  the  Company's  tenants  and  servants, 
their  rents,  corn  and  tributes  of  corn,  their  kine  and  other  cattle, 
their  stores  and  other  provisions  ;  whereby  the  company,  being 
disabled  in  all  appearance  of  ever  setting  up  the  same  again  or  to 
bear  the  great  burden  of  public  charge  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
being  thus  stripped  of  all  revenue,  the  said  Company  must  have 
failed  and  decayed  and  the  whole  colony  have  fallen  in  time  into 
the  hands  of  the  said  captain  and  his  association  to  be  there  es 
tablished,  which  seemeth  to  have  been  his  prime  and  original 
desire.  .  .  .  This  course  of  depredation  and  roving  not  sufficing 
as  likely  to  receive  encounter  and  check  from  hence,  new  engines 
were  used,  some  to  dishearten  and  some  to  disgrace  the  Company, 
that  so  as  it  seemeth  they  might  in  time  obtain  the  plantation  and 
leave  it  as  a  prey  to  the  said  captain,  his  friends  and  followers, 
etc."  Burk's  History  of  Virginia,  Appendix,  vol.  i.  The  extract 
is  from  the  document  known  as  The  Company's  Chief  Root  of 
Differences,  etc.  I  have  compared  this  copy  with  that  in  the  MS. 
Records  of  the  Virginia  Company,  Library  of  Congress,  and  find 
only  slight  verbal  differences.  At  the  instance  of  Warwick  the 
authors  of  this  paper — Lord  Cavendish,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  and 
John  and  Nicholas  Ferrar — were  put  under  arrest  in  their  own 
houses  for  this  "  impertinent  declaration."  The  Warwick  party 
had  made  "  threats  of  blood  "  to  deter  Southampton  from  com 
plaining  to  the  king. 

Birch's  Court  and  Times  of  James  the  First,  i,  31 1.  Chamber 
lain  to  Carleton,  May  16,  1614  :  "  Sir  Thomas  Gates  is  come  from 
Virginia,  and  brings  word  that  plantation  will  fall  to  the  ground 
if  it  be  not  presently  supplied.  He  speaks  of  wonderful  com 
modities  that  are  to  be  had  there  if  we  could  but  have  patience 
and  would  be  at  the  cost  to  bring  them  to  perfection."  Out  of 
this  necessity  for  some  present  support  came  the  great  lottery. 
It  was  recommended  by  the  Privy  Council  to  the  Mayor  of  Can 
terbury,  February  22,  1615.  There  was  a  "running  lottery"  of 
smaller  adventures  in  Paul's  Churchyard  before  the  "  great  stand 
ing  lottery  "  was  instituted,  and  then  there  were  other  "  running 
lotteries  "  "  in  many  other  places  after."  Purchas,  p.  1773.  No 
doubt  there  were  corruptions  and  abuses  in  these  lotteries.  The 
merchants  prospered  while  Virginia  languished.  Its  unpopularity 
is  attributed  to  "  malignant  tongues,"  in  the  MS.  Records  of  the 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  14, 
page  53. 


;o 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


Virginia  Company,  i,  158,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  lottery  may 
have  been  part  of  the  plot  of  those  who  sought  soon  after  to 
wreck  the  company  itself. 

My  attention  was  first  attracted  to  the  date  of  the  Great 
Charter  by  a  minute  in  the  handwriting  of  Secretary  Williamson 
in  the  Public  Record  Office,  as  follows:  "Those  Adventurers  & 
Planters  by  Vertue  ol  ye  sd  Letfs  Patent  of  Incorporacon  &c. 
made  a  Great  charter  of  Lawes  and  Ordrs  for  ye  governmt  of 
the  Country.  It  bore  date  at  London  Nov  13th  1618."  Col. 
Pprs.  i,  ii.  A  note  to  the  Aspinwall  Papers,  14,  refers  to  certain 
land  grants  which  cite  the  Great  Charter  of  November  I3th.  Fol 
lowing  these  two  authorities  I  gave  the  same  date  in  the  first  and 
second  edition  of  this  work.  I  was  aware  that  Yeardley's  In 
structions,  printed  in  the  Virginia  Magazine  of  History,  are  dated 
the  1 8th,  and  Wyatt's  Instructions  refer  to  Yeardley's  "commis 
sion"  as  dated  the  i8th.  I  have  now  examined  the  land  grants 
recorded  in  the  First  Book  of  Patents  in  the  office  of  the  Regis 
ter  of  Lands  at  Richmond.  A  large  number  of  the  earlier  ones 
refer  to  the  Great  Charter  as  authority,  and  they  uniformly  give 
the  same  date,  the  i8th.  The  evidence  is  thus  convincing  in 
favor  of  the  later  date.  I  defer  any  fuller  treatment  of  the 
character  and  influence  of  the  charter  to  a  later  volume  of  this 
series. 

The  Code  of  Lawes,  Divine,  Morall  and  Martiall,  by  which 
Dale  reigned  was  edited  and  published  by  Strachey  in  1612,  and 
reprinted  in  Force's  Tracts,  vol.  iii.  This  code  appears  to  have 
had  no  other  sanction  than  the  approval  of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe, 
the  governor  of  the  company.  The  beneficial  effect  of  these  laws 
is  maintained  in  Hamor's  Discourse,  in  Rolfe's  Relation,  and  in 
certain  letters  of  Dale  in  the  Record  Office.  It  was  not,  indeed, 
the  government  by  martial  law,  but  Dale's  abuse  of  his  power, 
that  wrought  the  mischief.  After  the  emancipation  the  old  set^ 
tiers  lived  in  perpetual  terror  lest  some  turn  of  the  wheel  should 
put  them  once  more  in  the  power  of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  and  his 
divine  and  martial  laws.  See  especially  the  Additional  Statement 
appended  to  the  Discourse  of  the  Old  Virginia  Company.  On  the 
long  and  bitter  dissension  that  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the 
company,  see  Arthur  Woodnoth's  Short  Collection  of  the  most 
remarkable  Passages  from  the  Original  to  the  Dissolution  of  the 
Virginia  Company,  a  rare  work  of  great  value  to  the  historian  of 
this  period. 


James  River  Experiments. 


Rolfe's  Relation  has  it  that  the  ship  which  brought  Yeardley 
brought  also  the  news  of  the  election  of  Sandys  and  John  Ferrar. 
But  Yeardley  arrived  in  Virginia  on  the  i8th  of  April  (O.  S.),  and 
Sir  Thomas  Smythe's  resignation  did  not  take  place  until  ten  days 
later.  Manuscript  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company.  The  news 
that  Sir  George  Yeardley  did  bring  was  no  doubt  that  the  power 
of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  and  his  party  was  broken,  and  that  the 
actual  control  of  affairs  was  in  the  hands  of  such  men  as  Sandys, 
Southampton,  Cavendish,  Danvers,  and  the  two  Ferrars.  The 
whole  policy  of  the  company  indicates  that  the  new  party  was 
really  in  power,  and  the  appointment  of  such  a  man  as  Yeardley 
was  probably  the  work  of  the  rising  party.  The  records  before 
the  resignation  of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  were  probably  destroyed 
for  purposes  of  concealment. 

Manuscript  Book  of  Instructions,  etc.,  Library  of  Congress. 
Letter  to  the  Governor  and  Council  by  the  ship  Marmaduke, 
August  12,  1621.  A  proposal  to  send  women  had  been  made 
seven  years  earlier.  Commons  Journal,  I,  487,  May  17,  1614. 
Extract  from  Martyn's  Speech  (for  which  he  was  reprimanded)  : 
"  That  they  require  but  a  few  honest  Labourers  burthened  with 
Children. — Moveth,  a  committee  may  consider  of  the  means  for 
this,  for  Seven  Years ;  at  which  some  of  the  Company  may  be 
present."  On  November  17,  1619,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  pointed 
out  in  the  court  of  the  company  that  the  people  of  Virginia 
"  were  not  settled  in  their  mindes  to  make  it  their  place  of  rest 
and  continuance."  "  For  the  remedying  of  the  Mischiefe  and 
for  establishing  a  perpetuitie  of  the  Plantation,"  he  proposed  the 
sending  of  "  one  hundred  young  maides  to  become  wives."  Manu 
script  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company,  i,  44,  45.  Two  women, 
the  first  in  the  colony,  had  arrived  in  September,  1608.  Oxford 
Tract,  47.  There  were  women  in  Gates's  party  in  1610.  It  was 
even  reported  that  some  English  women  had  intermingled  with 
the  natives.  Calendar  Colonial  Papers,  i.  13.  An  allowance  of  food 
to  women  in  De  la  Warr's  time  is  proof  that  women  were  there. 
In  1629  there  was  living  Mistress  Pearce,  "an  honest,  industrious 
woman,"  who  had  been  in  Virginia  "  near  twenty  years."  Rolfe 
(a  copy  of  whose  Relation  is  among  the  Duke  of  Manchester's 
MSS.  now  in  the  British  Public  Record  Office)  sets  down  a  re 
mainder  of  seventy-five  of  the  three  hundred  and  fifty-one  persons 
in  the  colony  at  Dale's  departure,  as  women  and  children.  It  is 
worth  recalling  here  that  D'Ogeron,  who  governed  Santo  DO- 


CHAP.  II. 

Note  17, 
page  56. 


Note  18, 
page  57- 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


mingo  in  1663  and  after,  supplied  the  buccaneers  with  wives 
brought  from  France ;  and  the  plan  was  also  put  into  practice  in 
Louisiana  about  a  century  later  than  the  Virginia  experiment,  and 
the  same  expedient,  as  is  well  known,  was  resorted  to  in  Canada. 
In  Virginia  more  pains  were  taken  to  have  all  the  women  thus 
imported  of  a  good  character  than  in  some  of  the  French  colonies. 

The  belief  that  these  maids  were  "  pressed  "  or  coerced  into 
going  is  probably  erroneous  (see  the  speech  of  Sandys,  July  7, 
1620,  Manuscript  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company).  He  says, 
"  These  people  (including  the  maids)  are  to  be  provided  as  they 
have  formerly  beene,  partlie  by  printed  publication  of  the  supplies 
indicated,  together  with  the  conditions  offered  to  these  publique 
tennants,  partlie  by  help  of  such  noble  friends  and  others  in  re 
mote  parts  as  have  formerlie  given  great  assistance."  The  notion 
that  some  of  the  maidens  were  pressed  seems  to  have  had  its  rise 
in  the  counterfeiting  of  the  great  seal  and  the  issuing  of  forged 
commissions  to  press  maidens  for  "  breeders  for  the  King  "  in  the 
Bermudas  and  Virginia  in  order  to  extort  money.  One  Owen 
Evans  was  accused  of  such  practices  in  October,  1618  (Sains- 
bury,  p.  19),  and  one  Robinson  was  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered 
for  this  or  similar  offences  in  November  of  the  same  year  (Birch's 
Court  of  James  I,  108).  In  order  to  encourage  the  adventurers 
or  shareholders  to  subscribe  to  the  sending  of  maids,  a  town  was 
laid  off  in  Virginia  to  be  called  Maydstown.  The  subscribers 
were  to  be  allowed  shares  in  this  town.  Manuscript  Records, 
May  20,  1622,  on  the  general  subject ;  also  Records  under  date 
of  November  3,  1621,  and  the  iyth  of  the  same  month,  June  u, 
and  November  21,  1621,  and  the  manuscript  book  in  the  Library 
of  Congress,  which  I  refer  to  in  these  notes  as  Manuscript  Book 
of  Instructions,  pp.  76  and  89.  I  may  remark  here  that  this 
book  has  not  been  in  use  in  recent  times  for  reference.  Its  origin 
is  uncertain,  nor  can  the  authorities  of  the  library  tell  where  it 
came  from.  It  was  compiled  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  judging  from  internal  evidence,  and  was  perhaps  kept 
among  the  records  of  the  colony  for  reference  on  what  we  should 
call  constitutional  questions.  I  found  a  loose  memorandum  laid 
in  its  pages  in  the  handwriting  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  to  whom  the 
book  probably  once  belonged. 


CHAPTER   THE    THIRD. 

THE  PROCESSION  OF  MOTIVES. 


I. 

THE  cause  of  the  sorrows  of  Virginia  will  be 
more  plainly  seen  if  we  turn  again  to  the  motives 
that  propelled  Englishmen  to  plant  a  colony.  The 
chief  mistake  lay  in  the  main  purpose.  If  the 
founding  of  a  state  had  been  other  than  a  second 
ary  and  remote  end,  the  managers  might  have  sent 
at  first  families  and  not  bachelors,  farmers  and  not 
gentlemen,  laborers  and  not  riff-raff.  But  more 
visionary  motives  dominated  the  action.  A  state 
was  planted,  but  something  else  was  mainly  in 
tended  by  the  first  projectors.  The  work  seemed 
continuous,  but  the  end  in  view  shifted  and  the 
actors  gradually  changed.  The  only  motive  that 
held  from  first  to  last,  and  ran  through  all  the  rest, 
was  the  rivalry  with  Spain. 

The  colonies  attempted  by  Frobisher  and  Gil 
bert  were  to  serve  as  relays  in  the  work  of  explora 
tion  for  a  sea  passage  to  the  Pacific  and  the  search 
for  mines,  but  they  mark  strongly  the  influence  of 
the  Spanish  example  on  English  projects.  Ralegh 
was  a  lifelong  opponent  in  peace  and  war  of  Span 
ish  intrigue  and  aggression,  and  his  efforts  to  plant 
colonies  in  the  virgin  land  were  suggested  by  a 

73 


CHAP.  III. 

The  chief 
mistake. 


The    rival 
ry  with 
Spain. 


74 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Lane  to 
Sydney. 
Aug.  12, 
1585. 
Sainsbury. 

Lane  to 
Walsing- 
ham.  Aug. 

12,   1585. 

Sainsbury. 


Note  i. 


Delusions 
in  colony- 
planting. 


knowledge  of  the  almost  exhaustless  treasure  that 
flowed  into  Spanish  coffers  from  America.  The  op 
portune  capture  of  a  Spanish  carack  bound  home 
ward  from  Mexico  with  letters  describing  the  wealth 
of  Mexican  mines  brought  the  support  of  English 
merchants  to  Ralegh's  undertaking.  Imbued  with 
the  same  spirit,  Ralegh's  governor  wrote  from 
Roanoke  Island  in  1585  that  his  colony  would  be 
a  means  of  deliverance  from  the  domination  of 
Spain,  "  whose  strength  doth  altogether  grow 
from  the  mines  of  her  treasure."  In  the  perilous 
isolation  of  the  little  company  on  Roanoke  Island, 
Lane  assures  himself  that  God  will  feed  his  men 
by  means  of  ravens  rather  than  suffer  their  "  ene 
mies  the  papists "  "  to  triumph  at  the  overthrow 
of  this  most  Christian  action."  The  home-staying 
English  of  that  age  were  spurred  to  colony-planting 
by  three  main  motives — cupidity,  patriotic  feeling, 
and  religious  zeal — and  all  of  these  were  provoked 
by  emulation  and  jealousy  of  Spain. 

II. 

The  prolonged  movement  for  a  colonial  estab 
lishment,  which  extended  over  the  latter  half  of 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth  and  almost  the  whole  of  the 
reign  of  James  I,  was  kept  alive  by  delusions.  The 
ultimate  ends  for  which  colonies  were  proposed 
and  planted  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  sixteenth 
and  the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century 
were  none  of  them  attained.  The  movable  pas 
sage  through  North  America  to  the  Pacific  was 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


75 


still  leading  explorers  a  merry  dance  when  the 
first  Jamestown  emigrants  sailed  in  1606,  and  gold 
mines  of  comminuted  mica,  of  iron  pyrites,  of  In 
dian  mineral  paints,  and  of  pure  fable  were  potent 
attractions  for  some  time  after.  The  gradual  in 
crease  of  geographical  knowledge  caused  the 
"South  Sea"  to  take  shelter  in  the  unknown  re 
gion  behind  the  mountains,  and  the  gold  mines 
reported  by  Indians  and  discovered  by  sanguine 
prospectors  were  somehow  lost  in  the  interminable 
forests.  In  this  exigency  the  first  colony  must 
have  perished  for  want  of  support  if  new  hopes 
as  illusive  as  the  old  had  not  moved  the  English 
people  to  avert  such  a  calamity. 

The  production  of  commodities  which  the  un- 
genial  climate  of  the  British  Islands  refused  to 
grow  was  thought  of  from  the  beginning,  and  they 
became  after  1616  the  main  hope  of  wealth  from 
Virginia.  It  seemed  grievous  that  England  should 
spend  her  money  in  buying  wine  and  silk  from 
southern  Europe  and  naval  stores  from  the  Baltic. 
The  only  maxim  of  political  economy  generally 
accepted  in  that  day  was  that  a  nation  is  enriched 
by  getting  money  from  abroad  and  keeping  it  at 
home.  The  precious  metals  constituted  the  only 
recognized  riches.  Laws  were  made  to  restrain 
the  exportation  of  gold  and  silver,  and  sumptuary 
laws  to  discourage  the  consumption  of  those  things 
that  must  be  bought  of  the  foreigner.  Efforts  to 
raise  in  Great  Britain  the  products  of  the  Mediter 
ranean  region  would  have  proved  successful  if  the 


CHAP.  III. 


Commodi 
ties. 


For  exam 
ple,  Car 
lisle's 
treatise, 
Anderson's 
Commerce, 
year  1583. 


76 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


climate  had  been  half  as  favorable  to  such  enter 
prises  as  the  government.  The  arguments  ad 
vanced  in  favor  of  the  possibility  of  producing 
wine  in  England  did  much,  no  doubt,  to  secure  the 
sunshine  of  royal  favor  for  experiments  made  to 
that  end,  but  climatic  conditions  were  inexorable. 
King  James  busied  himself  to  no  profit  in  raising 
mulberry  trees  and  nursing  a  private  stock  of  silk 
worms,  in  imitation  of  Henry  IV,  the  reigning 
King  of  France,  who  succeeded  in  producing  co 
coons  in  the  Tuileries  but  not  in  making  silk 
culture  profitable  in  the  north  of  France.  Mulber 
ries  were  first  planted  in  England  in  1608,  two 
years  after  the  sailing  of  the  Virginia  argonauts. 
James  sent  circulars  to  persons  of  influence  among 
his  subjects  asking  them  to  cultivate  mulberry 
trees,  and,  in  the  years  immediately  following,  the 
silk  fever  ran  its  course  alongside  the  excitement 
about  the  great  lottery  in  behalf  of  the  Virginia 
colony.  Hakluyt,  spreading  sails  for  America  in 
every  breeze,  hastened  to  announce  at  the  first 
mention  of  silk  culture  that  mulberry  trees,  "  apt  to 
feed  silke  wormes  to  make  silke,"  were  a  "  chiefe 
commoditie  "  of  Virginia. 

The  first  principles  that  govern  colony-planting 
were  not  yet  understood.  It  was  proposed  to  force 
everything  from  a  forlorn  camp  of  men  dwelling 
under  roofs  of  bark  and  sedge,  environed  by  treach 
erous  foes  and  in  constant  peril  of  starvation.  The 
raising  of  silkworms  was  begun  in  Virginia  in  1613, 
and  before  the  colony  was  nine  years  old  it  was 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


77 


able  to  send  to  England  silk  that  doubtless  had 
cost  more  than  a  hundred  times  its  market  value. 
The  experiment  came  to  nothing.  It  could  not 
have  happened  otherwise  amid  the  miseries  of 
those  early  years.  The  rats,  which  opportunely 
destroyed  the  eggs  of  the  silk  moth,  were  made  to 
bear  the  responsibility  for  the  failure. 

Silk  was  little  known  in  England  at  the  begin 
ning  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  but  it  came  into  great 
request  a  few  years  later.  In  1617  Lord  Carew 
declares  that  there  is  "  a  madness  for  silk  instead 
of  cloth."  This  rage  for  silk  led  to  the  establish 
ment  of  silk  manufacturing  in  England ;  throw 
sters,  dyers,  and  weavers  were  brought  to  England 
from  abroad  and  settled  in  Spitalfields,  "  the 
cheap  end  of  its  metropolis,"  and  in  Moorfields. 
It  seemed  more  than  ever  important  to  produce 
silk  in  the  king's  dominions,  in  order  to  supply 
these  manufacturers  with  material  without  impor 
tation  from  alien  lands.  Accordingly,  a  new  effort 
was  made  in  1620  to  secure  raw  silk  from  Virginia. 
The  Earl  of  Southampton,  ever  eager  to  promote 
the  Virginia  colony,  "  writt  into  Italy,  France,  and 
Spayne "  for  silkworm  "  seed "  ;  the  king  gave 
some  from  his  own  stock,  and  the  expert  who  had 
charge  of  the  king's  worms  was  sent  over  to  look 
after  the  business.  A  French  book  on  the  sub 
ject  was  translated  to  instruct  the  colonists.  The 
first  Virginia  Assembly  in  1619  had  passed  a  law 
to  promote  the  raising  of  the  mulberry.  To  save 
expense,  the  colonists  at  this  time,  or  later,  planted 


CHAP.  III. 


A  new  silk 
fever. 


Cal.   Dom. 
S.  P. 

James  I,  p. 
428. 


Pory's   Re 
port,  Pub. 
Rec.  Off. 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 

Phil. 

Trans.  I, 

201. 

Hening  i, 
14. 


Original 
Records  of 
Colony 
of  Va. 


Note  2. 


1655- 


the  trees  in  hedgerows  and  mowed  them  with  a 
scythe.  In  1621  orders  were  sent  from  England 
that  none  but  members  of  the  Council  and  the 
heads  of  hundreds  should  wear  silk,  unless  they 
had  made  it  themselves.  The  prohibition  shows 
how  general  was  the  craze  for  silk  clothing.  The 
climate  of  Virginia  proved  genial  enough,  but  the 
massacre  of  1622,  the  bitter  Indian  conflicts  that 
ensued  in  1623,  and  the  epidemic  of  the  same  year, 
following  one  another  swiftly,  were  enough  to  an 
nihilate  a  hundred  feeble  projects.  The  real  doom 
of  silk-raising,  however,  came  from  the  fact  that 
the  culture  of  tobacco  in  virgin  soil  was  incalcu 
lably  more  profitable  and  vastly  less  troublesome 
to  pioneers  than  hatching  silkworms'  eggs  in  one's 
pocket  or  bosom,  or  sleeping  with  them  in  a  small 
box  under  one's  bolster  and  covering  them  in  the 
warm  bed  on  rising.  The  project  was  blighted 
in  the  bud  by  adverse  economic  conditions — a 
killing  frost  more  deadly  to  such  enterprises  than 
an  ungenial  climate.  But  a  lesson  in  economic 
principles  is  one  of  the  hardest  for  men  to  learn. 
Long  after  the  colony  had  become  prosperous, 
English  projectors  and  Virginia  experimenters 
tried  again  and  again  to  supplant  tobacco  with 
silk.  If  we  may  credit  the  report,  Virginia  fur 
nished  a  coronation  robe  of  silk  for  Charles  I, 
and  Charles  II  certainly  wore  silk  from  worms 
hatched  and  fed  in  his  Virginia  dominions.  One 
Esquire  Digges  brought  Armenians  to  Virginia  to 
attend  his  worms.  But  in  the  Reformed  Virginia 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


79 


Silkworm,  by  Hartlib,  the  friend  of  Milton,  it  is 
announced  that  a  young  lady  had  discovered  that 
silkworms  would  care  for  themselves  on  the  trees, 
"  to  the  instant  wonderful  enrichment  of  all  the 
planters  there,  requiring  neither  cost,  labour,  or 
hindrance  in  any  of  their  other  employments."  It 
is  also  suggested  on  the  eager  title-page  of  the 
pamphlet  that  "  the  Indians,  seeing  and  finding 
that  there  is  neither  Art,  Pains,  or  Skill  in  the 
thing,"  will  "  incontinently  fall  to  raising  silk." 
Not  only  were  the  gentle  savages,  and  especially 
their  women  and  children,  to  devote  themselves  to 
silk,  but  the  American  caterpillar — "  the  natural 
silkworm  "  as  it  was  called — was  expected  to  spin 
for  the  market  if  his  cocoon  could  be  "  refined." 

By  1666  the  silk  delusion  had  passed,  and  the 
Virginia  Assembly  repealed  all  acts  for  the  en 
couragement  of  mulberry  trees.  Ten  years  later, 
Glover,  the  botanist,  found  many  of  these  trees 
still  standing  as  melancholy  witnesses  to  the  waste 
of  energy  by  the  earlier  promoters  and  settlers  of 
the  colony.  Almost  every  other  American  colony 
made  the  same  experiment  for  itself,  and  Virginia 
renewed  its  endeavors  from  time  to  time,  each 
generation  forgetting  what  its  fathers  had  learned. 

ill. 

Along  with  the  silk  fever  went  the  silk-grass 
craze.  Ralegh's  people  had  seen  the  Indians 
wearing  garments  woven  of  the  fiber  of  the  Yucca 
filamentosa,  the  "  Adam's  needle  and  thread "  of 


CHAP.  III. 


Comp.  Va. 
Richly  Val 
ued,  1650, 
and  Leah 
and  Ra 
chel,  1656. 

Note  3. 


Hening  ii, 
242. 


Phil. 

Trans.  XI, 
628. 


Silk-grass. 


8o 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 

A  Briefe 
and  True 
Report  of 
the  New 
Found 
Land  of 
Virginia. 


Proceed 
ings  of  Va. 
Assembly, 
1619. 
2d  N.  Y. 
Hist. 
Society 
Coll.  iii, 
343. 


Purchas 
IV,  p. 

1777. 


Instr.  of  24 
July,  1624. 
MS.  Bk.  of 
Instr.  Libr. 
of  Cong. 


our  popular  speech.  Harlot,  in  his  account  of  it, 
declares  that  "  the  like  grows  in  Persia,"  and  that 
much  of  the  "  silk-works "  coming-  thence  to 
Europe  was  made  of  this  fiber.  He  probably 
confounded  the  yucca  with  the  ramie  plant  of  the 
East,  of  which  grass  cloth  is  made.  Of  the  yucca 
fiber  taken  to  England  in  1585,  "a  piece  of  silk 
grogram "  was  made,  and  of  course  pronounced 
"  excellent  good  " ;  it  was  even  presented  to  the 
queen.  The  coarse  and  rather  brittle  fiber  of  this 
plant  was  exalted  by  enthusiasts  into  something 
nearly  equal  to  silk.  Ordinances  for  planting  it 
were  sent  from  England  ;  at  least  one  legislative 
act  in  its  favor  was  passed  by  the  Virginia  Assem 
bly,  and  the  most  foolish  hopes  were  entertained 
regarding  the  profit  to  be  had  from  it.  By  1619  it 
had  come  to  be  called  "  silk  flax,"  and  it  was  then 
advocated  for  homelier  uses,  such  as  cordage  and 
linen,  and  every  householder  was  compelled  by 
law  to  set  a  hundred  plants  ;  the  governor  himself 
set  five  thousand.  In  1624  it  is  spoken  of  as  "a 
commoditie  of  speciall  hope  and  much  use." 
There  were  by  this  time  those  who  ventured  to 
say  that  the  silk-grass  enterprise  was  "  full  of  diffi- 
cultie "  ;  but  the  managers  in  England  easily  got 
rid  of  this  objection  by  attributing  the  difficulty 
to  "  negligence  and  want  of  experience."  They 
were  just  then  intent  on  finding  some  commodity 
that  would  take  the  place  of  tobacco,  which  was 
frowned  upon  by  both  court  and  Parliament.  In 
spite  of  all  discouragement,  the  hope  of  good  re- 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


Si 


suits  from  the  yucca  fiber  outlasted  that  genera 
tion,  and  was  in  full  vigor  in  1649,  sixty-four  years 
after  Hariot's  mistake. 

IV. 

It  was  also  proposed  to  produce  wine  in  Vir 
ginia  for  English  consumption.  No  more  gold 
and  silver  should  go  out  of  the  realm  to  buy  port 
and  canary  to  the  profit  of  foreigners  and  the.  im 
poverishment  of  the  gjood  and  loyal  subjects  of  his 
Majesty.  The  instructions  on  this  point  were  clear, 
and  before  the  Virginia  exiles  had  secured  bread 
to  stay  their  hunger  they  had  made  wine  of  the 
sour  wild  grapes  of  the  country.  French  vine 
dressers  were  sent  over  a  little  later  and  were  for 
bidden  to  plant  tobacco,  but  were  compelled  to 
employ  themselves  about  vines,  with  the  care  of 
silkworms  for  variety.  In  1621  these  Frenchmen 
sent  to  England  a  cask  of  wine,  the  arrival  of  which 
was  duly  celebrated.  Other  experimental  casks  of 
wine  were  afterward  sent  to  England  from  America 
at  long  intervals,  but  without  decreasing  the  profits 
of  wine  growers  in  the  Old  World. 

All  the  commodities  sought  from  Virginia  were 
unsuited  to  conditions  in  a  new  country.  To  the 
folly  of  making  such  experiments  at  all  where  liv 
ing  itself  was  an  experiment,  the  managers  added 
the  folly  of  crowding  a  multiplicity  of  problematic 
enterprises  on  the  colony  at  the  same  time.  With 
a  virgin  continent  in  which  to  produce  novelties, 
all  things  seemed  possible  in  an  age  so  hopeful. 
7 


CHAP.  III. 


Wine. 


MS.  Rec. 
Va.  Co.  i, 
343- 


Other 

products 

sought. 


82 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 


Nova  Brit- 
tania. 


Timber 
and  naval 
stores. 

MS.  Rec. 
Va.  Co.  31 
May  and  23 
June,  1620. 


Note  4. 


Plants  of  every  clime  grew  rank  in  the  imagina 
tion  of  projectors.  Virginia  was  a  wonderland, 
and  it  was  readily  believed  without  evidence  that 
the  "  soyle  and  clymate  "  were  "  very  apt  and  fit 
for  sugar  canes  "  ;  "  also  linseed  and  rapeseeds  to 
make  oiles,"  as  a  black-letter  pamphlet  of  1609  ex 
presses  it.  Along  with  "  orenges,  limons,  and  al 
monds,"  this  official  writer  proposes  to  plant  "an- 
niseeds,  rice,  cummin,  cottonwool,  carroway  seeds, 
ginger,  madder,  olives,  oris,  sumacke,"  and,  as  if 
this  breathless  list  were  not  enough  for  one  new 
land,  he  adds,  "  and  many  such  like  that  I  can  not 
now  name."  If  we  may  trust  the  publications  of 
the  company,  various  West  India  plants  were  tried 
in  the  very  first  days  of  the  colony,  while  the  three 
fold  peril  of  death  from  famine,  pestilence,  and  sav 
age  war  was  imminent. 

But  it  was  not  enough  to  wring  from  an  infant 
colony  the  products  of  the  south ;  those  derived 
from  the  north  of  Europe  were  straightway  to 
be  got  there  also.  German  millwrights—"  Dutch 
carpenters,"  in  the  phrase  of  the  records — were 
brought  from  Hamburg  by  John  Ferrar  to  build 
Virginia  sawmills  ;  timber  was  still  sawed  by  hand 
in  England.  Pitch,  tar,  and  potash  were  to  be 
produced  by  Poles  sent  out  for  the  purpose  in  the 
second  year  of  the  colony.  Patriotism  dictated 
that  England  should  be  relieved  of  her  dependence 
on  foreign  countries  for  naval  stores.  Virginia 
had  forests:  why  should  she  not  produce  these 
things? 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


It  had  been  found  that  the  savages  eagerly  re 
ceived  glass  beads  in  exchange  for  corn  and  pel 
tries.  Nothing  more  was  required  to  prove  the 
profitableness  of  glass-making.  Some  Germans 
were  sent  to  the  colony  in  1608,  and  glass  works 
were  established.  For  some  reason  no  proper  ma 
terials  were  available  at  first,  and  it  became  neces 
sary  to  request  that  sand  might  be  sent  from 
England  to  make  Virginia  glass  of  at  the  glass 
works  in  the  woods  near  Jamestown.  The  Ger 
man  glass  blowers  were  prone  to  run  away  to  the 
Indians,  among  whom  work  was  lighter  and  food 
more  abundant.  The  tribesmen  encouraged  these 
desertions  by  providing  dusky  wives  for  the  men 
whose  skill  with  tools  and  weapons  they  valued 
highly.  In  1621  the  glass  business  was  revived, 
and  this  time  it  was  intrusted  to  Italian  workmen. 
About  the  same  time  iron  works  were  established 
at  Falling  Creek,  with  "  forty  skilled  workmen  from 
Sussex  to  carry  them  forward."  Twenty-five  ship 
carpenters  were  sent  to  ply  their  trade  on  the 
James  River,  and  it  was  also  arranged  that  oil  was 
to  be  distilled  from  walnuts  by  the  "  apothecaries." 
George  Sandys  was  sent  over  in  July,  1621,  to  have 
entire  control  of  all  schemes  for  staple  commodi 
ties.  There  was  a  certain  fitness  in  intrusting  these 
creatures  of  the  imagination  to  a  poet.  Pineap 
ples,  plantains,  and  other  fruits  were  to  be  started 
forthwith.  There  was  once  again  great  hope  from 
the  "  rich  commodity  of  silk,"  an  endowed  school 
for  Indians  was  founded,  and  the  little  Virginia 


CHAP.  III. 

Glass- 
making. 


Note  5. 


Iron 

works. 

Note  6. 


84 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  i. 

Result 
of  the 
massacre. 


Tobacco. 

A  Covnter- 
Blaste  to 
Tobacco, 
1604. 


Note  7. 


pool  became  iridescent  with  many  frail  bubbles. 
The  sudden  and  frightful  massacre  by  the  savages 
in  March,  1622,  obliterated  instantly  all  vain  and 
premature  projects.  This  calamity  did  not  cause 
the  failure  of  these  foredoomed  schemes  ;  it  only 
saved  them  from  a  painful  and  lingering  death,  and 
provided  their  friends  with  a  decent  epitaph  for 
them.  The  people  who  survived  the  massacre 
were  decimated  by  an  epidemic  in  the  following 
year.  What  strength  they  could  spare  from  fre 
quent  battles  with  the  savages  they  spent  in  grow 
ing  corn  and  tobacco,  which  last,  of  all  the  things 
tried,  proved  to  be  the  only  commodity  profitable 
for  export. 

v. 

Against  tobacco  King  James  had  written  a 
book.  It  was  denounced  in  Parliament  and  re 
garded  by  all  public-spirited  men  as  an  evil.  Nev 
ertheless,  it  turned  the  scale  and  saved  the  colony. 
In  colony-planting  the  problem  is  fundamentally  an 
economic  one,  and  economic  problems  are  solved 
by  coarse  and  homely  means.  John  Rolfe,  the 
first  Englishman  that  ventured  to  wed  an  Indian, 
planted  the  first  tobacco  at  Jamestown  in  1612,  and 
by  1616  the  better  West  India  variety  had  perhaps 
been  substituted  for  the  harsh  kind  grown  by  the 
Virginia  Indians,  and  by  them  called  "uppowoc" 
or  "apooke."  Tobacco  prospered  and  was  profit 
able,  to  the  disgust  of  the  pedantic  king  and  the 
sorrow  of  all  who  had  cherished  hopes  of  beautiful 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


products  from  a  colony  upon  which  so  much  po 
etic  sentiment  had  been  lavished.  Neither  gold 
nor  spices  came  as  had  been  expected  ;  the  strings 
of  pearls  seen  by  Ralegh's  men  were  not  again  to 
be  found,  or  were  perhaps  transformed  on  investi 
gation  into  wampum  beads ;  the  silver  mine  once 
discovered  on  the  upper  James  had  vanished  for 
ever;  tropical  fruits  refused  to  grow;  even  mad 
der  and  woad  failed,  and,  though  the  indigo  plant 
would  readily  mature,  nobody  knew  how  to  manu 
facture  the  dye.  Silk  was  troublesome  and  un 
profitable,  shipbuilding,  and  such  coarse  but  patri 
otic  products  as  naval  stores  had  come  to  naught. 
But  the  detestable  "  weed,"  as  King  James  had 
dubbed  it,  throve  apace.  As  early  as  1617  the 
waste  margins  of  the  broad  streets  of  James 
town  were  planted  with  it  by  the  eager  settlers. 
The  English  merchants  grasped  at  the  profits 
of  it,  the  farmers  of  the  customs  rejoiced  in  the 
heavy  duties  imposed  on  it,  and  a  powerful  mer 
cenary  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  Virginia  was 
established.  By  1624,  when  the  Virginia  Com 
pany  was  dissolved,  the  danger  that  the  colony 
would  be  abandoned  as  a  result  of  Spanish  in 
trigues,  Indian  massacres,  or  prolonged  discour 
agement  had  passed  away.  Public  spirit,  patriot 
ism,  and  religious  enthusiasm  no  longer  guarded 
it  as  a  feeble  house  plant.  It  had  struck  root  in 
the  outdoor  soil  of  human  self-interest  and  its  life 
was  assured.  From  that  time  the  colony  that  had 
been  for  seventeen  years  a  fairyland  to  dreamers 


CHAP.  III. 


Note  8. 


86 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Note  9. 


Motives  of 
sentiment. 


Rise  of  the 
patriot 
party  in 
the  Vir 
ginia  Com 
pany. 


in  England  and  a  perdition  to  its  inhabitants,  be 
came  a  sober  money-making  enterprise,  uninterest 
ing  to  enthusiasts  and  philanthropists. 

VI. 

In  the  preceding  sections  of  this  chapter  we 
have  traced  what  may  be  called  the  series  of  com 
mercial  motives  that,  sometimes  in  succession, 
often  in  co-operation,  propelled  the  Virginia  move 
ment.  The  agitation  for  a  colony  was  primarily 
a  commercial  one.  The  London  or  Virginia  Com 
pany  by  which  it  was  carried  forward  had  been 
organized  in  the  form  of  the  great  trading  cor 
porations  of  the  time,  such  as  the  Muscovy  Com 
pany  and  the  East  India  Company,  and  it  was 
expected  to  yield  large  returns.  But  though  com 
mercial  in  form  and  purpose,  the  Virginia  Com 
pany  from  the  outset  was  able  to  appeal  success 
fully  in  every  emergency  to  motives  that  were  far 
from  mercenary.  Into  the  chain-threads  of  com 
mercial  enterprise  was  woven  a  woof  of  patriotic 
feeling  and  religious  sentiment. 

VII. 

Dale's  empty-handed  return,  and  Argall's  home 
coming  with  hands  full  of  the  spoil  of  both  colony 
and  colonists,  were  severe  blows  to  the  hope  of 
profit  from  Virginia,  and  thereafter  commercial 
motives  fell  to  a  second  place.  The  company 
began  to  pass  more  and  more  out  of  the  control 
of  traders  like  Sir  Thomas  Smyth  and  Alderman 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


Johnson,  and  the  corrupt  clique  of  predatory  mer 
chants,  as  well  as  out  of  the  reach  of  voracious 
noblemen  like  Warwick.  More  and  more  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  great  liberal  statesmen  whose 
leader  was  the  incorruptible  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  a 
man  of  rare  gifts  and  knowledge  and  of  great  reso 
luteness.  These  men  had  suffered  some  disap 
pointment,  no  doubt,  in  their  struggle  for  parlia 
mentary  freedom  in  England.  They  might  have 
succeeded  better  had  their  antagonist  been  a 
strong  king,  but  against  the  pusillanimity,  the  van 
ity,  the  vacillation,  and  the  pedantic  dogmatism  of 
James  little  permanent  headway  could  be  made. 
Without  relinquishing  the  conflict  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  they  took  it  up  in  the  Quarter  Courts 
of  the  Virginia  Company.  In  this  new  field  they 
found  themselves  afresh  confronted  by  the  obsti 
nacy  of  the  king,  who  was  stirred  up  to  oppose 
them  by  the  discarded  governor,  Sir  Thomas 
Smyth,  and  his  friends,  by  Warwick,  and  by  all 
the  partisans  of  high  prerogative  and  all  the  ad 
vocates  of  the  Spanish  match.  "  Bedchamber  men  " 
and  others  about  the  king's  person  were  engaged 
to  work  upon  the  king  to  come  to  the  rescue  of 
Sir  Thomas  Smyth's  "  honor."  The  Spanish  am 
bassador  Gondomar,  who  had  spies  in  the  Virginia 
Company,  took  pains  to  feed  James's  discontent. 
He  told  the  king  that  it  was  time  for  him  to  look 
into  the  Virginia  courts,  which  were  held  in  the 
great  hall  of  the  house  of  the  Ferrar  family.  Too 
many  of  the  king's  nobility  and  gentry  resorted 


88 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


BOOK  I. 


Sir  Edwin 
Sandys. 


Royal 
Hist.  MS. 
Comm. 
viii,  II  45 


The  king's 
interfer 
ence. 

1620. 


thither,  in  order  to  be  in  company  with  the  popu 
lar  Lord  Southampton  and  the  dangerous  Sandys. 
They  were  deep  politicians,  and  they  entertained 
designs  beyond  a  tobacco  plantation.  Their  lead 
ers,  he  said,  were  "  subtle  men  of  high  courage 
who  regarded  neither  his  master  nor  their  own." 

Sandys,  as  assistant  to  Sir  Thomas  Smyth  and 
virtual  governor,  had  already  succeeded  in  estab 
lishing  in  Virginia  a  constitutional  state  with  a 
representative  government.  He  was  furthering 
plans  for  the  foundation  of  the  little  separatist 
state  of  New  Plymouth,  and  his  enemies  set  ago 
ing  tales  that  he  had  dark  designs  of  removing 
with  the  Pilgrims  to  America,  in  order  to  found  a 
democratic  state  there.  In  1619  Sir  Thomas 
Smyth  tendered  his  resignation,  and  the  company, 
to  his  surprise,  it  would  appear,  accepted  it,  and 
chose  Sandys  to  his  place.  When,  in  1620,  his 
first  year  of  government  drew  to  a  close,  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys  erected  an  elegant  ballot-box  in  the 
midst  of  the  hall  of  the  Ferrars,  that  the  brilliant 
assemblage  of  noblemen,  knights,  gentlemen,  and 
merchants  might  by  a  secret  vote  exercise  the 
right  of  choice  without  any  constraint.  Just  as 
the  assemblage  was  about  to  begin  voting,  two 
clerks  of  the  signet  were  announced  with  a  mes 
sage  from  the  king  forbidding  the  company  to 
choose  Sandys.  "  Choose  the  devil,  if  you  will, 
but  not  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,"  was  one  form  in  which 
the  king  expressed  his  aversion.  Southampton, 
braving  the  king's  displeasure,  allowed  himself  to 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


89 


be  elected,  with  Sandys  for  deputy.  In  June,  1621, 
both  Southampton  and  Sandys  were  imprisoned. 
This  attracted  attention  to  Virginia  as  a  "  refuge 
from  a  more  oppressive  government  in  England." 
In  three  months'  time  twenty-five  ships  set  sail  for 
the  colony,  which  gained  an  impetus  from  the 
king's  opposition  that  put  it  beyond  the  danger 
of  destruction  by  the  calamities  of  the  next  two 
years.  Even  before  the  massacre  and  pestilence 
of  1622  and  1623,  Southampton  was  assured  by 
friends  at  court  that  it  would  come  to  "  push  of 
pike,"  and  that  the  company  would  be  over 
thrown.  The  charter  of  the  company  was  va 
cated  in  1624,  but  free  government  had  so  taken 
root  in  the  colony  that  it  could  never  afterward  be 
quite  extirpated.  A  new  English  state  with  a 
popular  government  had  been  founded  of  delib 
erate  purpose  by  a  group  of  English  statesmen,  at 
the  head  of  which,  and  easily  first,  was  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  whose  great  service  to  the  people  and  na 
tion  that  were  to  come  has  been  almost  forgotten. 

VIII. 

We  shall  not  have  taken  a  just  account  of  Vir 
ginia  colonization  if  we  do  not  reckon  religious 
motives  among  the  many  forces  that  carried  that 
wavering  enterprise  to  success.  From  the  excite 
ment  about  American  exploration  and  coloniza 
tion  the  English  church  caught  its  first  mission 
ary  impulse.  The  Indian  captives  brought  from 
America  at  various  times  gave  to  Englishmen 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


Zeal  of  the 
clergy. 


the  novel  sight  of  men  and  women  from  beyond 
the  bounds  of  Christendom ;  people  who  had  never 
been  baptized,  and  had  never  learned  to  wear  Eng 
lish  garments,  "  naked  slaves  of  the  devil,"  as  one 
of  the  early  Virginia  clergymen  described  them. 
To  the  benevolent  desire  of  Englishmen  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  savages  from  devil-worship  and 
semi-nudity,  there  was  added  the  natural  wish  for 
ecclesiastical  extension.  The  separation  of  Eng 
land  from  the  Roman  hierarchy  had  been  a  blow 
to  the  aspiration  for  an  unattainable  catholicity 
cherished  in  one  form  or  another  by  Christian 
ecclesiastics  of  almost  every  school.  It  was  not 
possible  that  the  great  men  who  were  leaders  of 
the  English  church  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
James  should  be  content  with  the  narrow  limits  of 
"the  little  English  paddock,"  while  Spanish  con 
querors  and  missionary  priests  were  winning  for 
the  Roman  communion  a  new  and  vast  dominion 
in  America.  English  ecclesiastics  felt  keenly  the 
reproach  made  against  them  by  the  Roman  Cath 
olics  that  they  were  not  "  converters  of  infidels." 

Perhaps  the  earliest  of  all  Anglican  mission 
aries  was  Robert  Hunt,  the  first  minister  in  Vir 
ginia,  a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place  indeed.  He 
bore  with  unfaltering  courage  and  a  sweet-hearted 
patience  rarely  equaled  in  the  history  of  martyr 
dom  the  accumulating  miseries  of  Jamestown,  until 
he  also  perished  in  the  general  mortality.  His 
nobleness  of  spirit  softened  the  detestable  rivalries 
of  the  early  leaders.  The  most  active  and  influen^ 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


tial  writers  in  favor  of  colonization  were  clergy 
men  such  as  Hakluyt,  Symonds,  Purchas,  and 
Crashaw.  Other  clergymen,  following  in  the  foot 
steps  of  Hunt,  risked  life  itself  in  the  Virginia  col 
ony,  while  devout  laymen  spent  their  money  in  its 
behalf.  Thus  did  Anglican  zeal  further  a  colo 
nization  that,  by  a  curious  perversity  of  outcome, 
resulted  in  founding  a  nation  of  dissenters. 

IX. 

In  the  great  hall  of  the  house  of  Nicholas  Fer- 
rar,  a  London  merchant,  the  courts  or  meetings  of 
the  Virginia  Company  were  held  for  years.  The 
two  sons  of  this  Nicholas  Ferrar,  John  and  Nicho 
las,  served  in  turn  as  deputy  governors  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Company.  This  pious  Ferrar  family,  as  it 
became  influential,  lent  to  the  scheme  of  colonizing 
Virginia  something  of  the  air  of  a  project  for  prop 
agating  the  gospel.  Nicholas,  the  father,  gave 
money  for  the  education  of  infidels  in  Virginia.  A 
school  was  founded  there  by  the  gifts  of  the  pious, 
and  rewards  were  given  to  those  colonists  who 
would  educate  Indian  children  in  their  families. 
After  the  younger  Nicholas,  who  was  a  man  of 
remarkable  zeal  and  activity,  tinged  with  a  roman 
tic  enthusiasm,  became  deputy  in  1622,  the  pro 
duction  of  silk  and  wine  and  iron  and  the  educa 
ting  of  Indians  in  Christianity  traveled  on  abreast. 
A  college  was  proposed,  for  which  an  endowment 
of  thirteen  hundred  pounds  was  collected,  and  to 
which  a  valuable  library  was  bequeathed  by  a  set- 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


tier.  Practical  men  grumbled  at  the  prematurity 
of  all  this,  and  complained  of  those  in  charge 
that  "they  spent  Michaelmas  rent  in  mid-summer 
moone."  The  governor  of  the  colony,  honest  Sir 
Francis  Wyatt,  wished  that  "  little  Mr.  Ferrar 
were  in  Virginia,  where  he  might  add  to  his  zeal 
a  knowledge  of  the  country." 

The  horrible  massacre  of  March,  1622,  made  the 
Indian  question  something  other  than  the  Ferrars 
saw  it.  All  schemes  for  educating  the  savages 
were  obliterated  in  a  day.  The  only  thought  after 
this  was  how  to  put  the  savages  to  death,  old  and 
young,  men  and  women,  more  often  by  foul  means 
than  by  fair.  The  settlers  even  emulated,  if  they 
did  not  surpass,  the  treachery  of  the  Indians. 
With  the  dissolution  of  the  company  by  quo  war- 
ranto  proceedings  in  1624  the  government  of  the 
colony  passed  to  the  Crown,  and  the  Ferrars  had 
no  more  to  do  with  Virginia. 

x. 

The  later  career  of  Nicholas  Ferrar  the  young 
er,  though  without  direct  relation  to  colonization, 
throws  light  on  the  age  of  colony  beginnings. 
Rejecting  the  offer  of  a  rich  bride,  he  bought  for 
his  mother,  now  a  widow,  the  manor  lordship  of 
Little  Gidding,  in  Huntingdonshire,  and  took  the 
entire  Ferrar  family,  including  his  brother  and  his 
sister  with  eighteen  children,  into  religious  retire 
ment.  Here  this  half-domestic,  half-monastic  com 
munity  gave  alms  to  the  poor,  illuminated  manu- 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


93 


scripts  of  the  Bible,  and  worshiped  in  its  little 
chapel  with  genuflections  and  other  observances 
that  procured  for  it  the  nickname  of  the  "  Prot 
estant  Nunnery,"  and  brought  down  upon  it  the 
pious  fury  of  the  Puritans.  Nicholas  Ferrar,  who 
had  taken  deacon's  orders,  was  the  real  head  of 
the  community.  He  prepared  at  Little  Gidding 
what  is  perhaps  the  earliest  English  monatesseron 
of  the  four  gospels.  By  means  of  relays  of  wor 
shipers  the  Ferrars  kept  their  devotions  always 
in  progress.  The  entire  Psalter  was  chanted  anti- 
phonally  during  each  twenty-four  hours.  Those 
whose  turn  it  was  to  keep  vigil  were  wont  to  leave 
a  candle  at  the  door  of  Nicholas  and  to  wish  him 
good-morrow  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  at 
which  hour  he  was  accustomed  to  rise  and  begin 
the  exercises  of  the  day.  The  strength  of  this 
belated  mediaeval  saint  gave  way  under  a  disci 
pline  so  austere,  and  he  died  in  1637.  Little  Gid 
ding,  with  its  "fair  grove  and  sweet  walks  lat 
ticed  and  gardened  on  both  sides,"  was  devastated 
a  few  years  later  by  the  counter-zeal  of  the  Puri 
tans,  who  showed  an  especial  indignation  against 
the  organ,  which  they  broke  into  pieces  to  light 
fires  for  roasting  the  sheep  of  the  Ferrars.  Behold 
an  epitome  of  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury — its  idealism  in  affairs,  and  its  war  to  the 
death  of  opposing  ideals  in  religion ! 

In  the  very  years  during  which  the  Ferrars 
were  most  active  on  behalf  of  Virginia  the  earliest 
Puritan  movement  toward  America  set  in.  The 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


attenuated  medievalism  of  the  Ferrars  did  not  lack 
a  certain  refined  beauty,  but  it  was  hardly  suited 
to  the  rough  work  of  hewing  a  road  along  which 
civilization  might  march  into  a  savage  wilderness. 
The  Puritans,  with  their  robust  contempt  for  ses- 
thetic  considerations — making  firewood  of  organs 
with  delight,  and  feasting  without  scruple  on  the 
sheep  of  those  whom  they  esteemed  idolaters — 
were  much  the  fitter  to  be  champions  against  the 
American  Canaanites. 

ELUCIDATIONS. 

Two  of  the  chapter  heads  to  Hakluyt's  Westerne  Planting, 
printed  in  2d  Maine  Historical  Collections,  ii,  sufficiently  indicate 
the  views  prevailing  at  the  time  : 

"  V.  That  this  voyadge  will  be  a  greate  bridle  to  the  Indies 
of  the  Kinge  of  Spaine,  and  a  meane  that  wee  may  arreste  at  our 
pleasure  for  the  space  of  tenne  weekes  or  three  monethes  every 
yere,  one  or  two  hundred  saile  of  his  subjectes  Shippes  at  the 
fysshinge  in  Newfounde  lande. 

"  VI.  That  the  mischefe  that  the  Indian  threasure  wroughte 
in  time  of  Charles  the  late  Emperor,  father  to  the  Spanishe  Kinge, 
is  to  be  had  in  consideration  of  the  Queens  moste  excellent  Ma- 
jestie,  least  the  contynuall  comynge  of  the  like  threasure  from 
thence  to  his  sonne  worke  the  unrecoverable  annoye  of  this  realme, 
wherof  already  wee  have  had  very  dangerous  experience." 

The  heading  of  the  first  chapter  should  be  added  :  "  I.  That 
this  westerne  discoverie  will  be  greately  for  thinlargemente  of  the 
gospell  of  Christe  whereunto  the  princes  of  the  refourmed  relligion 
are  chefely  bounde,  amongst  whome  her  Majestic  ys  principall." 

It  would  be  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  the  present  work  to  tell 
the  story  of  Spanish  jealousy  of  Virginia,  and  of  the  diplomatic 
intrigues  for  the  overthrow  of  the  colony.  See  documents  in  Mr. 
Alexander  Brown's  Genesis  of  the  United  States.  One  can  not 
but  regret  that  Mr.  Brown  did  not  give  also  the  original  of  his 
Spanish  papers ;  no  translation  is  adequate  to  the  use  of  the 
historian. 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


95 


This  method  was  recommended  to  the  colonists  as  late  as 
1753  in  Pullein's  Culture  of  Silk  for  the  Use  of  the  American 
Colonies,  and  it  had  probably  long  prevailed  on  the  continent  of 
Europe. 

The  authorities  on  the  early  efforts  to  raise  silk,  in  addition  to 
those  cited  in  the  text  and  the  margin,  are  too  numerous  to  find 
place  here.  The  most  valuable  of  all  is,  of  course,  the  copy  of 
the  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company  after  April,  1619,  in  the 
Library  of  Congress,  passim.  See,  for  example,  under  date  of 
December  13,  1620,  and  June  11,  1621.  See  also  A  Declaration 
of  Virginia,  1620,  and  Purchas,  pp.  1777-1787,  Hamor's  True 
Discourse,  Smith's  General  History,  Book  II,  Anderson's  Com 
merce  under  1620,  and  various  state  papers  abstracted  by  Sains- 
bury,  with  Sainsbury's  preface  to  the  first  volume  of  his  Calendar, 
and  Hening,  passim.  The  reader  is  also  referred  to  Mr.  Bruce's 
Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  issued 
as  these  pages  are  passing  into  the  hands  of  the  printer.  The 
wildness  of  some  of  the  proposals  for  the  production  of  Virginia 
silk  in  the  Commonwealth  period  is  almost  surpassed  by  other 
projects  of  the  time.  In  Virginia  Richly  Valued,  1650,  perfume 
was  to  be  extracted  from  the  muskrat,  and  the  James  River 
sturgeon  were  to  be  domesticated.  Fishes  may  be  "unwilded," 
says  the  author.  Besides  feeding  silkworms,  the  Indians  were  to 
be  used  in  pearl  fisheries  in  Virginia  waters.  WyckofT  on  Silk 
Manufacture,  Tenth  Census,  says  that  experimental  silkworms 
had  been  taken  to  Mexico  by  the  Spaniards  in  1531,  without  any 
permanent  results. 

Even  in  Elizabeth's  time  efforts  had  been  made  to  procure 
naval  stores  without  the  intervention  of  foreign  merchants.  As 
early  as  1 583,  Carlisle,  who  was  son-in-law  to  Secretary  Walsing- 
ham,  had  subscribed  a  thousand  pounds  toward  an  American 
colony,  which  it  was  urged  would  buy  English  woolens,  take  off 
idle  and  burdensome  people,  and,  among  other  things,  produce 
naval  stores.  In  1601  Ralegh  had  protested  eloquently  against 
the  act  to  compel  Englishmen  to  sow  hemp.  "  Rather  let  every 
man  use  his  ground  to  that  which  it  is  most  fit  for,"  he  said. 
Edwards,  Life  of  Ralegh,  p.  272. 

Why  Germans  were  sent  it  is  hard  to  say,  as  glass  was  made 
in  England  as  early  as  1557.  Glass  was  produced  in  Virginia, 
according  to  Strachey,  who  says  :  "  Although  the  country  wants 
not  Salsodiack  enough  to  make  glasse  of,  and  of  which  we  have 


96 


Rise  of  the  First  Colony. 


made  some  stoore  in  a  goodly  howse  sett  up  for  the  same  pur 
pose,  with  all  offices  and  furnases  thereto  belonging,  a  little 
without  the  island,  where  Jamestown  now  stands."  History  of 
Travaile  into  Virginnia  Brittannia,  p.  71.  The  house  appears  to 
have  been  standing  and  in  operation  in  1624.  Calendar  of  Colo 
nial  Documents,  January  30,  February  16,  and  number  20,  pp. 
38,  39- 

Purchas,  p.  1777,  says  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  persons 
were  sent  over  two  years  earlier  to  set  up  three  iron  works,  but 
the  statement  seems  hardly  credible.  In  the  midst  of  the  misery 
following  the  massacre  of  1622,  and  notwithstanding  the  immi 
nent  probability  of  the  overthrow  of  the  company,  which  was 
already  impoverished,  some  of  the  adventurers  or  shareholders 
sent  nine  men  to  Virginia  to  try  a  different  method  of  making 
iron  from  the  one  that  had  previously  been  used.  Letter  of 
August  6,  1623,  in  Manuscript  Book  of  Instructions  in  Library  of 
Congress,  fol.  120.  Having  "  failed  to  effect  "  the  making  of  iron 
"by  those  great  wayes  which  we  have  formerly  attempted,"  the 
undiscouraged  visionaries  "most  gladly  embraced  this  more 
facile  project  "  of  making  iron  "  by  bloom,"  but  with  a  like  result, 
of  course. 

The  raising  of  tobacco  in  Virginia  was  one  of  the  earliest 
projects  entertained.  "  We  can  send  .  .  .  tobacco  after  a  yeare 
or  two,  five  thousand  pounds  a  yeare."  Description  of  the 
Now-discovered  river  and  Country  of  Virginia,  with  the  Likly- 
hood  of  ensuing  Ritches  by  England's  Ayd  and  Industry,  May 
21,  1607.  Public  Record  Office,  printed  in  Transactions  of  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society,  iv,  59,  62.  The  paper  is  sup 
posed  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Captain  Gabriel  Archer. 

In  1604  the  king  had,  by  a  royal  commission  addressed  to 
"  our  treasurer  of  England,"  arbitrarily  raised  the  duty  on  tobacco 
from  twopence  a  pound  to  six  shillings  tenpence.  He  was  prob 
ably  moved  to  make  this  surprising  change  by  his  antipathy  to 
tobacco  ;  but  by  increasing  the  profits  of  the  farmers  of  customs 
and  monopolists  of  tobacco,  he  no  doubt  contributed  to  that 
abandonment  of  Virginia  to  tobacco  raising  which  seemed  to  him 
so  lamentable.  The  use  of  Spanish  tobacco  in  England  was 
general  before  that  from  Virginia  began  to  take  its  place.  Bar- 
nabee  Rich  says,  in  1614  :  "I  have  heard  it  tolde  that  now  very 
lately  there  hath  bin  a  cathologue  taken  of  all  those  new  erected 
houses  that  have  set  vppe  that  trade  of  selling  tobacco  in  Lon- 


The  Procession  of  Motives. 


97 


don,  ande  neare  about  London,  and  if  a  man  may  beleeue  what 
is  confidently  reported,  there  are  found  to  be  vpward  of  7000 
houses  that  doth  Hue  by  that  trade."  He  says  such  shops  were 
"almost  in  euery  lane  and  in  euery  by-corner  round  about  Lon 
don."  The  Honestie  of  this  Age,  p.  30. 

The  MS.  records  of  the  Virginia  Company  and  the  State 
papers  relating  to  Virginia  in  the  Public  Record  Office,  London, 
are  the  most  important  authorities  on  the  subjects  treated  in  the 
text.  On  the  commodities  attempted  at  the  outset,  Manuscript 
Book  of  Instructions,  Library  of  Congress,  the  first  volume  of 
Hening's  Statutes,  passim,  and  Purchas,  pp.  1777-1786,  passim. 
On  the  inferiority  of  the  Indian  tobacco,  see  Strachey,  p,  121. 

Peckard's  Life  of  Ferrar  supplies  many  of  the  particulars  in 
this  section.  The  Records  of  the  Virginia  Company  and  other 
original  authorities  do  not  sustain  all  of  Peckard's  statements. 
The  author's  view  is  evidently  distorted  by  biographer's  myopia. 
He  often  seems  to  depend  on  tradition,  but  in  some  passages  his 
touch  is  more  sure,  and  he  writes  like  a  man  who  has  documents 
before  him.  Arthur  Woodnoth's  Short  Collection  of  the  Most 
Remarkable  Passages  from  the  Originall  to  the  Dissolution  of  the 
Virginia  Company  is  of  great  value.  It  is  a  scarce  tract,  which  I 
met  first  in  the  White-Kennett  Library,  in  the  rooms  of  the  Soci 
ety  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  also  in  the  British 
Museum,  Harvard  College,  and  the  Library  of  Congress.  It  is 
to  be  taken  with  discrimination,  but  the  view  of  the  inner  work 
ings  of  court  intrigue  as  it  affected  Virginia  is  so  fresh  and  de 
tailed  that  it  would  be  a  pity  to  miss  its  information.  It  was 
printed  in  1651.  There  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  life  of  Sandys  in 
Brown's  Genesis  of  the  United  States,  ii,  993. 

Hakluyt's  Discourse  concerneing  Westerne  Planting,  printed 
first  in  the  Maine  Historical  Collections,  second  series,  vol.  ii, 
page  ii.  "And  this  enterprise  the  princes  of  religion  (amonge 
whome  her  Majestic  ys  principall)  oughte  the  rather  to  take  in 
hande  because  papists  confirme  themselves  and  drawe  other  to 
theire  side  shewinge  that  they  are  the  true  Catholicke  churche 
because  they  have  bene  the  onely  converters  of  many  millions  of 
infidells.  Yea,  I  myself  have  bene  demanded  of  them  how  many 
infidells  have  bene  by  us  converted." 


CHAP.  III. 


Note  9, 
paga  86. 


Note  10, 
page  89. 


Note  n, 
page  90. 


BOOK    II. 

THE   PURITAN    MIGRATION. 


CHAPTER   THE    FIRST. 
RISE  AND   DEVELOPMENT  OF  PURITANISM. 

I. 

NOT  religious  disputants  only,  but  the  world  in 
general,  exaggerated  the  importance  of  vestments 
and  ceremonies  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  The 
love  of  formality  and  display  that  characterized 
the  Renascence  was  then  at  its  height.  It  was  a 
time  of  pomps  and  royal  progresses.  Great  his 
toric  characters  went  about  dressed  like  perform 
ers  in  a  show.  Some  of  the  queen's  gowns  were 
adorned  with  jewels  on  every  available  inch  of 
space.  These  bespangled  robes  were  draped  over 
vast  farthingales,  which  spread  out  like  tables  on 
which  her  arms  might  rest,  and  her  appearance 
when  thus  attired  has  been  compared  to  that  of 
an  Oriental  idol.  Her  courtiers  and  statesmen 
were  equally  fond  of  dazzling  the  spectator. 
Ralegh  wore  a  pendent  jewel  on  his  hat  feather, 
and  the  value  of  the  gems  on  his  shoes  was  esti 
mated  at  six  thousand  six  hundred  pieces  of  gold. 

The  love  of  pomp  was  not  confined  to  the  court ; 

9s 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


99 


every  nobleman  and  country  gentleman  kept  his 
house  filled  with  idle  serving  men,  the  sons  of 
neighboring  gentlemen  or  yeomen,  whose  use  was 
to  "  grace  the  halls "  of  their  patron  by  their  at 
tendance  and  to  give  dignity  to  his  hospitality. 
High  sheriffs  and  other  officials  performed  their 
functions  with  thirty  or  forty  men  in  livery  at 
their  heels,  even  borrowing  the  retainers  of  their 
friends  to  lend  state  to  their  office.  Edward  VI 
set  out  upon  a  progress  in  1551  with  a  train  of 
four  thousand  mounted  men.  These  were  noble 
men  and  gentlemen  with  their  retainers.  He  was 
obliged  to  dismiss  all  but  a  hundred  and  fifty  of 
this  vast  army  of  display  lest  it  should  "  eat  up 
the  country."  The  gorgeous  progresses  of  Eliza 
beth  are  too  well  known  to  need  description.  A 
painting  of  the  time  shows  her  to  us  in  the  act  of 
making  a  friendly  call  on  her  cousin-german,  Lord 
Hunsdon.  She  is  sitting  under  a  canopy,  and  is 
borne  on  the  shoulders  of  men  and  attended  by  a 
brilliant  train  of  lords  and  ladies  on  foot.  It  was 
truer  in  the  days  of  Shakespeare  than  it  has  been 
since  that  "  all  the  world's  a  stage,  and  all  the  men 
and  women  merely  players." 

A  passionate  love  of  the  theater  was  inevitable 
in  such  a  time.  The  best  poetry  then  took  a  dra 
matic  form  ;  even  history  was  taught  from  the 
stage ;  and  satire  and  polemics  felt  the  attraction 
and  were  often  put  into  imaginary  dialogues.  It 
was  Shakespeare's  good  fortune  that  he  happened 
to  live  among  a  people  fond  of  show  and  in  an 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  i. 


Machyn's 
Diary,  324, 
note. 


The  age 
of  the 
drama. 


IOO 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Display  in 
dress. 


Packard's 
Life  of 
Ferrar. 


Stubbes, 
Anatomie 
of  Abuses, 
passim. 


Note  2, 


age  dramatic  as  well  as  poetic  to  its  very  core. 
Genius  is  nourished  by  sympathy,  and  supremely 
great  performance  is  rendered  possible  only  by  the 
rare  coincidence  of  the  great  man  and  a  fitting 
environment. 

Dress  signified  more  to  the  men  of  the  time  of 
Elizabeth  and  James  than  it  is  easy  for  us  moderns 
to  imagine.  Greatness  declared  itself  by  external 
display.  The  son  of  a  rich  merchant  when  he  re 
turned  from  his  travels  decked  himself  in  gor 
geous  apparel,  and  formally  made  his  appearance 
on  the  Exchange  like  a  butterfly  newly  emerged. 
It  was  thus  that  his  parents  brought  the  young 
man  out  in  the  world.  A  sum  equal  in  purchas 
ing  power  to  several  thousand  dollars  in  our  time 
is  said  to  have  been  spent  on  one  pair  of  trunk 
hose.  Men  of  the  lowest  ranks,  desirous  of  appear 
ing  more  than  they  were,  impoverished  themselves 
in  buying  expensive  hats  and  hose  ;  and  it  is  re 
corded  that  women  suffering  for  the  necessaries  of 
life  sometimes  contrived  to  adorn  themselves  with 
velvet.  For  the  very  reason  that  so  much  impor 
tance  was  attached  to  dress,  laws  were  made  to 
repress  inappropriate  display  in  people  of  lower 
rank.  Even  the  severe  Puritan  moralists  did  not 
object  to  the  pomp  of  the  great,  but  to  the  extrava 
gant  imitation  of  it  by  those  who  had  no  right  to 
such  ostentation.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  men 
could  conceive  of  greatness  without  display.  To 
refuse  a  bishop  his  vestments  was  to  abate  some 
thing  of  his  lofty  rank. 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


101 


II. 

Along  with  a  love  for  external  show  went  a 
scrupulous  observance  of  decorous  and  often  pomp 
ous  ceremonies.  Englishmen  in  the  sixteenth  and 
the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  never 
omitted  to  observe  proper  formality,  no  matter 
how  dire  the  emergency.  One  may  see  this  exem 
plified  by  reverting  to  some  of  the  earliest  events 
in  American  history.  When  Gates  arrived  at 
Jamestown  near  the  close  of  the  "  starving  time," 
he  found  only  the  gaunt  ghosts  of  men  clamoring 
to  be  taken  from  the  scene  of  so  many  horrible 
miseries.  Instead  of  giving  immediate  attention 
to  the  sufferings  of  the  people,  he  caused  the  little 
church  bell  to  be  rung.  Such  of  the  inhabitants 
as  could  drag  themselves  out  of  their  huts  repaired 
once  more  to  the  now  ruined  and  unfrequented 
church  with  its  roof  of  sedge  and  earth  supported 
by  timbers  set  in  crotches.  Here  the  newly  ar 
rived  chaplain  offered  a  sorrowful  prayer,  and  then 
George  Percy,  the  retiring  governor,  delivered 
up  his  authority  to  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  who  thus 
found  himself  in  due  and  proper  form  installed 
governor  of  death,  famine,  and  desperation.  When 
Gates  abandoned  the  wrecked  town  with  his  starv 
ing  company  he  fired  a  "  peale  of  small  shott,"  in 
order  not  to  be  wanting  in  respect  for  a  royal  fort ; 
and  when  De  la  Warr  arrived,  a  few  days  later,  he 
made  his  landing  with  still  greater  pomp  than  that 
of  Gates.  There  was  a  flourish  of  trumpets  on 


CHAP.  I. 


Observ 
ance  of 
ceremo 
nies. 


Compare 
supra, 
p.  41. 


102 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


shipboard  before  he  struck  sail  in  front  of  James 
town.  A  gentleman  of  his  party  bore  the  colors  of 
the  governor  before  him.  The  governor's  first  act 
when  he  set  foot  on  American  soil  was  to  fall  on 
his  knees  and  offer  a  long,  silent  prayer,  which  was 
probably  sincere  though  theatrical,  after  the  man 
ner  of  the  age.  He  rose  at  length  and  marched  up 
into  the  ruined  town.  As  he  passed  into  the  stock 
ade  by  the  water  gate,  which  was  shabbily  off  its 
hinges,  the  color  bearer  dropped  down  before  him 
and  allowed  the  colors  to  fall  at  the  feet  of  his 
lordship,  who  proceeded  to  the  tumble -down 
chapel,  under  the  earthen  roof  of  which  the  au 
thority  over  the  colony  was  duly  transferred  to  his 
hands  with  such  solemnities  as  were  thought  proper. 
Whenever  Lord  De  la  Warr  went  to  church  at 
Jamestown  he  was  attended  by  the  councilors,  cap 
tains,  and  gentlemen,  and  guarded  by  fifty  men 
with  halberds,  wearing  De  la  Warr's  livery  of 
showy  red  cloaks.  The  governor's  seat  was  a 
chair  covered  with  green  velvet.  It  was  in  the 
choir  of  the  now  reconstructed  little  church,  and  a 
velvet  cushion  lay  on  the  table  before  him  to  en 
able  him  to  worship  his  Maker  in  a  manner  becom 
ing  the  dignity  of  a  great  lord  over  a  howling  wil 
derness.  More  than  a  quarter  of  the  able-bodied 
men  in  Virginia  were  needed  to  get  the  governor 
to  church  and  back  again  aboard  the  ship  where 
he  dwelt. 

Even  at  a  later  date  in  the  rather  hungry  little 
Pilgrim  colony  at  Plymouth  almost  as  much  cere- 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


103 


mony  was  observed,  though  the  people  were  ex 
treme  Puritans  without  rank.  At  beat  of  drum  on 
Sunday  morning  the  men  came  to  Captain  Stand- 
ish's  door  with  their  cloaks  on,  each  bearing  a  mus 
ket  or  matchlock.  They  proceeded  to  church  three 
abreast,  led  by  a  sergeant.  In  the  rear  walked  the 
governor,  in  a  long  robe.  On  his  right  was  Elder 
Brewster,  wearing  a  cloak.  On  the  governor's  left 
was  Captain  Miles  Standish,  who  also  wore  a  cloak 
and  side  arms,  and  carried  a  small  cane  as  a  sort 
of  baton  of  authority  perhaps.  Thus  "  they  march 
in  good  order,  and  each  sets  his  arms  down  near 
him." 

It  was  only  in  an  age  such  as  this  that  resistance 
to  the  celebration  of  rites  and  the  observance  of 
forms  could  be  made  a  capital  article  of  faith  by  the 
Puritan,  and  later  by  the  Quaker.  The  wearing  of 
a  surplice,  the  propriety  of  doffing  the  hat  on  cer 
tain  occasions,  was  a  matter  for  scruple  and  violent 
debate,  for  the  grave  consideration  of  the  lawgiver 
and  magistrate,  and  for  severe  penalties. 

in. 

In  the  brief  Protestant  reign  of  Edward  VI 
there  were  those  who  objected  to  "  the  vest 
ments,"  and  one  may  even  find  what  were  after 
ward  called  Puritan  opinions  condemned  among 
current  errors  in  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  Henry 
VIII ;  but  Puritanism — as  a  party  protest  against 
pomp  and  ceremonialism  in  religious  worship — 
had  its  origin  in  the  persecution  of  Queen  Mary's 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


time.  The  English  Protestants  who  fled  from  that 
fiery  ordeal  found  refuge  chiefly  in  Protestant  cit 
ies  of  the  Continent.  Strasburg,  Frankfort,  Basel, 
Zurich,  and  Geneva  were  the  places  to  which  these 
English  exiles  mainly  resorted.  Zurich  and  Stras 
burg  became  cities  of  refuge  for  many  of  those 
who  were  to  become  leaders  of  the  Anglican  or 
Conservative  party,  while  others  who  tended  to 
what  were  afterward  called  Puritan  views  went 
sooner  or  later  to  Geneva,  where  Calvin  was  the 
dominant  influence. 

In  the  cities  in  which  they  found  safety  the 
exiles  organized  English  churches.  More  remark 
able  religious  communities  were  never  gathered 
into  single  congregations.  Five  bishops  and  five 
deans  of  the  English  Church,  and  more  than  fifty 
eminent  doctors  of  divinity,  with  younger  men  who 
were  destined  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  future, 
were  comprised  in  these  little  churches.  Such 
communities  soon  became  centers  of  animated  dis 
cussion  and  debate. 

During  the  preceding  reign  of  King  Edward 
VI,  English  Protestantism  had  been  forced  into 
many  compromises  within  itself.  No  form  of  re 
ligious  life  can  become  national  without  exacting 
of  its  advocates  of  differing  shades  of  opinion  many 
sacrifices  for  the  sake  of  unity ;  but  now  that  the 
leaders  of  English  Protestantism  were  in  exile  they 
found  themselves  in  a  measure  freed  from  motives 
of  policy  and  with  leisure  to  develop  and  apply 
their  theories.  A  passion  for  the  ideal  thus  suddenly 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


105 


unchained  easily  becomes  rampant.  There  sprang 
up  swiftly  a  dispute  between  the  church  in  Stras- 
burg  and  the  church  in  Frankfort  on  matters  of 
government.  The  reformatory  spirit  is  rarely  con 
ciliatory,  and  in  its  excess  and  overflow  it  is  wont  to 
be  pragmatic  and  impertinent.  Some  of  the  reform 
ers  of  Strasburg  felt  bound  to  go  over  to  Frankfort 
and  re-reform  the  reformed  English  church  there ; 
and  the  little  English  community  in  Frankfort  was 
soon  torn  asunder  between  the  followers  of  Rich 
ard  Cox  and  those  of  John  Knox — the  same  who 
was  afterward  so  famous  in  the  Scottish  refor 
mation. 

This  dispute  in  Frankfort  between  the  Coxans 
and  the  Knoxans,  as  they  were  called,  had  all  the 
characteristics  that  render  church  quarrels  odious. 
One  finds  in  it  the  bitterness  of  slanderous  vio 
lence — the  little  deceptions  and  unmanly  treacher 
ies  that  characterize  such  debates  and  disclose  the 
sorry  threadbareness  of  human  saintship  even  in 
exiles  and  martyrs  for  conscience*  sake.  But,  petty 
as  were  these  squabbles  at  Frankfort,  they  pro 
duced  results  of  the  first  magnitude.  Small  things 
change  the  whole  course  of  history  when  they  lie 
near  the  fountain  head  of  a  great  current.  From 
the  conflicting  factions  in  the  church  of  the  exiles 
at  Frankfort  were  evolved  the  opposing  parties 
that  were  to  give  character  to  English  Protestant 
ism,  and  to  modify  profoundly  the  history  of  Eng 
land  and  as  profoundly  the  history  of  the  United 
States. 


CHAP.  I. 


Character 
of  the  de 
bates  at 
Frankfort. 


io6 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


The  rise  of 
the  two 
great  par 
ties. 


In  the  contentions  of  the  English  at  Frankfort, 
resulting  now  in  the  exiling  from  the  city  of  one 
beaten  minority  and  now  in  the  departure  of  an 
other,  and  in  the  driving  away  of  one  leading  dis 
putant  after  another,  there  appeared  at  length  the 
features  of  the  two  great  parties  of  English  Protes 
tantism  face  to  face  for  the  first  time.  One  of  these 
parties  tried  to  hold  all  of  antique  ritual  that  the 
Protestant  conscience  could  be  made  to  bear,  in 
sisted  upon  the  superior  authority  of  the  clergy, 
and  sought  to  disturb  as  little  as  possible  the  ancient 
order  of  the  English  church.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  the  rapid  changes  produced  by  the  Frankfort 
contentions,  the  tendency  of  the  ultra  wing  of  the 
Protestants  to  the  notion  of  a  local  and  independent 
church  and  to  a  democratic  church  government 
was  already  apparent.  Even  the  peculiarity  of 
two  ministers  presiding  over  one  church,  which 
was  cherished  later  in  New  England,  appeared 
among  the  English  at  Frankfort  and  Geneva  at  this 
time. 

While  attempting  to  mediate  between  the  par 
ties  at  Frankfort,  Calvin  expressed  his  preference 
for  a  ritual  of  greater  purity  than  that  established 
by  the  English  Prayer  Book  of  King  Edward's  time. 
Extreme  Protestants  rallied  round  this  ideal  of  a 
liturgy  purified  of  human  tradition.  It  was  some 
years  later,  after  the  Frankfort  church  had  been 
dissolved  and  the  exiles  had  returned  to  England, 
that  this  party  came  to  be  known  by  the  name 
of  Puritan — that  is,  a  party  not  so  much  bent  on 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


107 


purity  of  conduct  as  on  purifying  Protestant  wor 
ship  from  mediaeval  forms. 

After  the  death  of  Mary  and  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth  the  English  Protestants  returned  to  their 
own  country.  The  two  great  parties  that  were  to 
divide  the  English  church  had  already  begun  to 
crystallize.  Those  who  had  settled  at  Strasburg 
and  Zurich  came  back  hoping  to  re-establish  the 
Anglican  Church  on  the  conservative  basis  of  the 
Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.  Those  who  returned 
from  Basel  and  Geneva  had  caught  the  spirit  of 
the  Calvinistic  churches,  and  wished  to  push  the 
reformation  to  a  more  logical  extreme ;  while  the 
Frankfort  church,  or  what  remained  of  it,  had  been 
storm-driven  well-nigh  to  a  theory  of  congrega 
tional  independence  in  church  government. 

The  petty  squabbles  of  the  English  exiles,  trans 
planted  to  England,  grew  into  bitter  feuds  and 
brought  forth  persecutions  and  political  struggles. 
The  settlement  of  New  England,  the  battles  of 
Marston  Moor  and  Naseby,  the  temporary  over 
throw  of  the  English  monarchy,  the  growth  of  non 
conformity,  the  modification  of  the  English  Con 
stitution  and  of  all  English  life,  were  germinally 
present  in  the  differences  between  the  exiles  at 
Zurich  and  those  at  Geneva,  and  in  the  squabbles 
of  Cox  and  Knox,  of  Whithead  and  Home  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Main  about  gowns  and  litanies  and 
the  authority  of  the  priest.  It  is  not  often  that  a 
great  historical  movement  can  be  traced  through  a 
single  rill  to  its  rise  at  the  fountain  head. 


CHAP.  I. 


Return  of 
the  exiles, 
1558. 


Results. 


loS 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


The  Puri 
tan  debate. 


Certayne 
Qvestions 
concerning 
silk  or 
wool  in 
the  high 
priest's 
ephod, 
1605. 


IV. 

The  theological  debates  that  fill  so  large  a 
place  in  the  history  of  the  first  half  of  the  six 
teenth  century  in  Europe  were  mainly  concerned 
with  speculative  dogmas.  However  futile  contro 
versies  may  seem  that  seek  to  reduce  to  formulas 
the  relations  between  God  and  man,  they  have  at 
least  a  topical  dignity.  But  the  debates  about  cer 
emonies  and  vestments  which  the  exiles  brought 
back  to  England  from  the  Continent,  and  which 
held  first  place  there  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
and  James,  were  bitter  without  being  serious.  A 
life-and-death  struggle  concerning  the  wearing  of 
"  white  surplices "  or  the  making  of  the  sign  of 
the  cross  in  baptism  can  not  but  seem  frivolous  to 
the  modern  mind.  Learned  scholars  like  Brough- 
ton  and  Ainsworth  thought  it  not  beneath  them  to 
write  tractates  discussing  the  material  of  which 
the  ephod  of  a  Jewish  high  priest  was  made.  It 
was  learnedly  demonstrated  that  the  ephod  was 
of  silk,  and  there  were  sober  essays  on  the  linsey- 
woolsey  side  of  that  controversy.  To  the  fine 
spun  mind  of  that  time  the  character  of  the  Jewish 
ephod  was  thought  to  settle  the  propriety  of  the 
Christian  surplice.  To  the  modern  reader  the 
whole  debate  about  vestments  and  liturgies  would 
be  amusing  if  it  were  not  so  tedious.  It  is  nec 
essary  to  steady  one's  judgment  of  that  age  by 
remembering  that  deeper  things  sometimes  lay 
concealed  under  these  disputes  regarding  the  con- 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


109 


temptible  mint  and  cumin  of  ecclesiasticism.  Puri 
tanism  at  its  rise  was  an  effort  to  escape  from 
formalism,  the  outgrowth  of  an  aspiration  for 
greater  spirituality  in  worship ;  but  it  gradually 
passed  into  an  opposite  formalism  as  rigid  as  that 
from  which  it  had  escaped. 

It  was  in  vain  that  Elizabeth  tried  to  compel 
uniformity.  The  difference  between  the  radical 
and  the  conservative  is  constitutional,  and  is  mani 
fest  in  every  period  of  agitation.  Neither  the  me 
diation  of  moderate  men  nor  the  compulsion  of 
authority  can  bring  these  two  sempiternal  divisions 
of  the  human  race  into  agreement.  The  conserva 
tive  English  churchman  limited  his  Protestantism 
to  the  rejection  of  the  pope's  authority,  and  to  cer 
tain  moderate  reforms  in  church  government  and 
ritual.  He  shuddered  with  alarm  at  every  pro 
posal  to  reconstruct  religious  institutions  which 
were  moss-grown  with  ancient  sentiment.  The 
extreme  Puritan,  on  the  other  hand,  went  about 
his  work  in  the  spirit  of  a  Jehu.  He  saved  all  his 
reverence  for  the  precepts  of  the  Bible,  now  be 
coming  common  in  the  vulgar  tongue.  He  ap 
plied  biblical  phraseology  to  the  affairs  of  life' in  a 
way  that  would  have  been  impossible  had  he  pos 
sessed  any  sense  of  humor.  He  felt  himself  im 
pelled  by  the  call  of  God  to  carry  out  in  England 
the  changes  that  had  taken  place  in  the  Calvinistic 
churches  of  the  Continent,  and  to  go  even  further. 
He  would  have  no  surplices,  no  sign  of  the  cross, 
no  liturgy,  no  church  holy  days.  Away  with  these 


CHAP.  I. 


Uniform 
ity  not 
possible. 


1 10 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Growth  of 

party 

spirit. 


Puritan 
ism  the 
party  of 
opposi 
tion. 


rags  of  Antichrist,  was  his  cry.  Let  us  get  back 
to  the  simplicity  of  the  primitive  ages.  The  An 
glican,  on  the  other  hand,  felt  himself  an  English 
man  above  all,  and  without  a  stately  liturgy,  great 
bishops  in  square  caps  and  lawn  sleeves,  Christmas 
feasts,  solemn  Good  Fridays,  and  joyous  Easters, 
there  would  have  remained  for  him  no  merry 
England. 

£ 

V. 

The  party  line  between  Anglican  and  Puritan 
was  not  at  once  sharply  drawn.  It  was  only  after 
debates  growing  ever  more  acrimonious,  after  per 
secutions  and  numberless  exasperations,  that  the 
parties  in  the  Church  of  England  fell  into  well- 
defined  and  hostile  camps.  If  there  had  been  some 
relaxation  of  the  requirements  of  uniformity,  if  a 
conciliatory  policy  had  been  pursued  by  the  gov 
ernment,  the  ultimate  division  might  have  been 
postponed  until  party  spirit  had  cooled  ;  but  in 
that  day  blows  took  the  place  of  words,  and  words 
had  the  force  of  blows.  The  queen  herself  could 
write  to  a  bishop  who  scrupled  to  do  what  she  de 
sired,  "  By  God,  I  will  unfrock  you  !  "  and  modera 
tion  in  debate  was  not  to  be  expected  from  lesser 
folk. 

When  the  reformer  has  warmed  to  his  work  he 
looks  about  him  for  new  abuses  to  fall  upon.  The 
dominant  discontent  of  any  age  is  prone  to  spread 
its  wings  over  other  grievances,  and  feebler  move 
ments  seek  shelter  from  the  strong.  Puritanism 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


ill 


no  doubt  gathered  momentum  from  the  wide 
spread  agrarian  and  industrial  disturbance  in  this 
and  the  preceding  reigns.  The  profit  from  sheep- 
raising  had  induced  many  manor  lords  to  inclose 
the  wastes  on  which  the  peasants  had  pastured 
their  cattle  for  ages.  The  humble  copy-hold  ten 
ant,  having  no  longer  grass  for  his  cows  or  mast 
for  his  pigs,  was  driven  to  distress  by  agricultural 
progress.  In  some  cases  even  the  common  fields, 
cultivated  in  allotments  from  ancient  times  by  the 
members  of  the  village  communities,  first  as  serfs 
and  later  as  tenants,  were  turned  into  sheepwalks, 
and  hamlets  of  tenants'  cottages  \vere  torn  down 
to  make  room  for  more  profitable  occupants  of  the 
soil.  The  worst  offenders  were  the  greedy  court 
iers  who  had  secured  the  estates  of  the  English 
monasteries.  Workmen  ruined  by  the  dissolution 
of  the  guilds  were  added  to  the  ranks  of  the  un 
happy.  All  the  discontent  begotten  of  these  tran 
sitions  from  mediasval  life  tended  to  strengthen  the 
leading  opposition — and  that  leading  opposition 
was  Puritanism. 

VI. 

Puritanism  also  progressively  widened  its  field 
of  protest.  Beliefs  that  Protestants  rejected  were 
symbolized  by  the  vestments  of  bishop  and  clergy. 
Advanced  Protestants  insisted  that  the  shadows 
should  be  banished  with  the  substance,  that  the 
symbol  should  disappear  with  the  dogma.  We 
have  seen  that  in  Frankfort  the  inchoate  Puritan 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  5. 


Widening 
the  field  of 
protest. 


112 


TJie  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Puritan 
ism  be 
comes  dog 
matic. 


Note  6. 


party  wished  to  abolish  the  litany  and  purge  the 
service  book  of  all  the  remains  of  the  old  religion. 
This  controversy  raged  in  England,  and  the  Puri 
tan  side  did  not  at  first  lack  support  even  among 
the  bishops.  But  Elizabeth,  the  real  founder  of 
Anglicanism,  molded  the  church  to  her  will,  put 
ting  down  Catholics  and  Puritans  with  a  hard 
hand.  The  more  advanced  of  the  party  came  at 
length  to  believe  that  all  "  stinted  "  prayers  "  read 
out  of  a  book"  were  contrary  to  the  purity  and 
simplicity  of  Christian  worship.  The  hostility  of 
the  bishops  to  that  which  the  Puritans  believed  to 
be  the  cause  of  God  no  doubt  helped  to  convince 
the  persecuted  party  that  the  episcopal  office  itself 
was  contrary  to  Scripture. 

Most  of  the  Puritans  of  Elizabeth's  time,  under 
the  lead  of  the  great  Cartwright,  became  Presbyte 
rian  in  theory  and  sought  to  assimilate  the  Church 
of  England  to  the  Calvinistic  churches  of  the  Con 
tinent,  holding  that  theirs  was  the  very  order  pre 
scribed  by  the  apostles.  Another  but  much  smaller 
division  of  the  Puritans  tended  toward  independ 
ency,  finding  in  the  New  Testament  a  system  dif 
ferent  from  that  of  Cartwright.  Both  the  Pres 
byterians  and  those  who  held  to  local  church 
government  wished  to  see  their  own  system  estab 
lished  by  law.  Neither  faction  thought  of  toler 
ating  Anglican  practices  if  the  Anglicans  could  be 
put  down.  The  notion  of  a  state  church  with  pre 
scribed  forms  of  worship  enforced  by  law  was  too 
deeply  imbedded  in  the  English  mind  to  be  easily 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


got  rid  of,  and  the  spirit  of  persecution  pervaded 
every  party,  Catholic  or  Protestant.  Every  one 
was  sure  that  divine  authority  was  on  his  side,  and 
that  human  authority  ought  to  be. 


VII. 

A  corresponding  change  began  to  take  place 
in  the  Episcopal  party.  The  earlier  defenders  of 
Elizabeth's  establishment  argued,  somewhat  as 
Hooker  did  later,  that  the  "  practice  of  the  apos 
tles  "  was  not  an  "  invariable  rule  or  law  to  suc 
ceeding  ages,  because  they  acted  according  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  church  in  its  infant  and  perse 
cuted  state."  Episcopal  government  they  held  to 
be  allowable,  and  maintained  the  attitude  of  prudent 
men  who  justify  their  compromise  with  history 
and  the  exigency  of  the  time,  and  advocate,  above 
all,  submission  to  civil  authority.  But  the  tend 
ency  of  party  division  is  to  push  both  sides  to 
more  positive  ground.  There  arose  in  the  last 
years  of  Elizabeth  a  school  of  High-churchmen 
led  by  Bancroft,  afterward  primate,  who  turned 
away  from  Hooker's  moderation  and  assumed  a 
more  aggressive  attitude.  Like  the  Presbyteri 
ans  and  the  Independents  and  the  Catholics,  these 
in  turn  maintained  that  their  favorite  system  of 
church  economy  was  warranted  by  divine  author 
ity,  and  that  all  others  were  excluded. 

When  the  High-church  leaders  had  reached 
the  dogmatic  assertion  of  apostolic  succession  and 
a  divinely  appointed  episcopal  form  of  government 


CHAP.  I. 


Anglican 
ism  be 
comes 
dogmatic. 


Failure  of 
Eliza 
beth's 
policy. 


114 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  n. 


Bitterness 
of  the  de 
bate. 


The  Mar- 
prelate 
tracts. 

1588. 


as  essentials  of  a  Christian  church,  the  fissure  be 
tween  the  two  ecclesiastical  parties  in  England 
was  complete.  Each  had  settled  itself  upon  a  sup 
posed  divine  authority  ;  each  regarded  the  other 
as  teaching  a  theory  contrary  to  the  divine  plan. 
Elizabeth's  policy  of  repression  had  produced  a 
certain  organic  uniformity,  but  the  civil  war  of  the 
seventeenth  century  was  its  ultimate  result. 

VIII. 

The  controversy  between  the  two  Protestant 
parties  naturally  grew  more  bitter  as  time  went  on. 
The  silencing  of  ministers,  the  Fleet  Prison,  the 
inquisitorial  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  and  other 
such  unanswerable  arguments  did  not  sweeten  the 
temper  of  the  Puritans.  The  bitterness  of  the  con 
troversy  reached  its  greatest  intensity  in  1588,  when 
there  appeared  a  succession  of  anonymous  tracts, 
most  of  them  signed  Martin  Marprelate.  They 
seem  to  have  been  written  mainly  by  the  same 
hand,  but  their  authorship  has  been  a  matter  of 
debate  to  this  day. 

The  sensation  produced  by  these  violent  assaults 
is  hardly  conceivable  now.  There  were  no  news 
papers  then,  and  there  was  but  little  popular  lit 
erature.  Here  were  little  books  printed  no  one 
knew  where,  written  by  no  one  knew  whom, 
concerning  a  religious  controversy  of  universal 
interest.  They  were  couched  in  the  phrase  of  the 
street,  in  the  very  slang  and  cant  of  the  populace, 
and  were  violent  and  abusive,  sometimes  descend- 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


ing  to  sheer  blackguardism.  Marprelate  went 
gunning  for  large  game ;  his  deadliest  abuse  he  let 
fly  as  from  a  blunderbuss  at  the  very  heads  of  the 
English  church.  The  Dean  of  Salisbury  he  calls 
"  Doctor  of  Diviltrie  and  Deane  of  Sarum."  It 
was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  polemics  that 
any  one  had  addressed  a  high  dignitary  of  the 
church  with  such  irreverent  titles  as  "  You  grosse 
beaste  !  "  "  You  block,  you  !  "  Sometimes  Martin 
bends  his  knees  with  mock  reverence,  as  when  he 
calls  the  clergy  "right  poysond,  persecuting  and 
terrible  priests."  He  blurts  out  epithets  against 
"  the  sinful,  the  unlawful,  the  broken,  the  unnatural, 
false,  and  bastardly  governours  of  the  church  ;  to 
wit,  archbishops  and  bishops";  and  addresses  them 
as  "  you  enemies  to  the  state,  you  traytors  to  God 
and  his  worde,  you  Mar-prince,  Mar-land,  Mar-ma- 
gestrate,  Mar-church,  and  Mar-commonwealth." 
The  spice  of  the  books,  that  which  gave  them  their 
popularity,  was  doubtless  their  rollicking  impu 
dence.  "  Wo — ho,  now,  Brother  London !  "  he  cries 
to  the  Bishop  of  London.  "  Go  to,  you  Asse!"  is  a 
kind  of  kennel  eloquence  relished  by  the  populace. 
Martin  seems  even  to  giggle  and  sneer  and  hiss  in 
type  in  such  expressions  as  "  tse,  tse,  tse." 

The  little  books  went  everywhere.  The  Bishop 
of  Winchester  sadly  confessed  that  these  "  slander 
ous  pamphlets,  freshe  from  the  presse,"  were  "  in 
men's  hands  and  bosoms  commonly."  The  queen 
and  courtiers  read  them,  and  students  had  nothing 
better  to  laugh  at.  Who  will  not  stop  in  the  street 


CHAP.  I. 


The  Mar- 
prelate 
tracts  in 
Lenox 
Library. 


An  Ad 
monition  to 
the  People 
of  Eng 
land,  p.  25. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Lenox  Col 
lection, 
N.  Y.  Pub. 
Library. 


to  hear  one  clown  rail  cleverly  at  another?  But  to 
see  the  bishops  collectively  and  the  primate  and 
others  severally  put  into  a  pillory  and  pelted  in  this 
daring"  fashion  by  a  man  who  knew  that  his  life 
would  pay  the  forfeit  for  his  libel  if  he  could  by 
any  means  be  discovered,  was  livelier  sport  than 
bull-baiting. 

Dr.  Cooper,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  replied  to 
the  first  pamphlet  somewhat  ponderously,  as  be 
came  a  bishop  who  feels  that  the  proprieties  for 
bid  his  being  too  interesting.  Marprelate  wanted 
nothing  better  than  a  bishop  for  an  antagonist ; 
and  while  the  whole  constabulary  force  of  the 
kingdom  was  hunting  him  for  his  life,  the  nimble 
Martin  was  chuckling  over  the  excitement  made 
by  a  new  tract  of  his,  headed  with  the  well-known 
street  cry  of  a  tub-mender,  which  played  derisively 
on  Bishop  Cooper's  name,  "  Hay  any  worke  for 
Cooper?"  This  tract  professed  to  be  " printed 
in  Europe  not  farre  from  some  of  the  Bounsing 
priestes."  In  this  paper  Martin  shows  to  what 
depth  a  religious  debate  in  Elizabeth's  time  could 
descend  ;  he  stoops  to  make  the  bishop  ridiculous 
by  twitting  him  with  the  infidelity  of  his  wife,  a 
scandal  which  the  unfortunate  prelate  had  treated 
with  "  Socratical  and  philosophical  patience." 

There  were  not  wanting  many  imitators  of  Mar 
tin's  grossness  on  the  other  side  of  the  controversy, 
who  were  just  as  libelous  but  for  the  most  part  less 
clever.  One  of  the  tracts  in  reply  was  called  An 
Almond  for  a  Parrat.  The  author  says  he  had 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


117 


heard  that  Martin  was  dead,  or,  as  he  expressed 
it,  "  that  your  grout-headed  holinesse  had  turned 
uppe  your  heeles  like  a  tired  jade  in  a  medow  and 
snorted  out  your  sorrowefull  soule,  like  a  mesled 
hogge  on  a  mucke-hille."  This  is  beastly  without 
being  vivacious.  While  the  press  and  the  stage 
were  occupied  with  coarse  retorts  on  Martinism, 
there  appeared  tracts  in  favor  of  peace.  There  are 
other  evidences  of  the  existence  of  a  moderate 
party  that  lamented  the  excesses  of  both  sides  in 
this  debate. 

IX. 

Puritanism  was  evolutionary  from  the  begin 
ning.  Its  earlier  disputes  about  vestments  and 
litanies  grew  by  degrees  to  a  rejection  of  all  litur 
gies  as  idolatrous.  Even  the  reading  of  the  Bible 
as  a  part  of  the  service  came  at  last  to  be  repre 
hended  by  extremists,  and  the  repetition  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  was  thought  dangerously  liturgical. 
The  advanced  Puritans  sought  to  exclude  from 
Christian  worship  everything  pleasing  to  the  ass- 
thetic  sense,  confounding  bareness  with  simplicity. 
Compromises  continued  to  be  made  inside  the 
church,  but  in  the  ultimate  ideal  of  Puritan  wor 
ship  there  remained,  besides  the  sermon,  nothing 
but  long  extemporary  prayers  and  the  singing  by 
the  untrained  voices  of  the  congregation  of  literal 
versions  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms — doggerel  verse  in 
cobblestone  meters. 


CHAP.  I. 


Comp. 
Bacon's 
An  Adver 
tisement 
touching 
Controver 
sies,  etc. 


Advance 
of  Puritan 
opinions. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


x. 

In  its  early  stages  Puritanism  was  a  crusade 
against  idolatry,  and  drew  its  inspiration  in  this,  as 
in  nearly  everything  else,  from  the  Old  Testament. 
To  the  word  "  idolatry  "  it  gave  an  inclusiveness 
not  found  in  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  puzzling  to 
a  mind  accustomed  to  modern  ways  of  thinking. 
There  was  hardly  any  set  observance  of  the  church 
in  which  constructive  idolatry  did  not  lie  concealed. 
All  holy  days  except  Sunday  were  abhorred  as 
things  that  bore  the  mark  of  the  Beast.  Even  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  long  before  the  name 
of  Puritanism  was  known,  the  May-poles  round 
which  English  people  made  merry  once  a  year 
were  denounced  as  idols  in  a  sermon  preached  at 
Paul's  Cross  by  Sir  Stephen — the  "  Sir  "  being  a 
polite  prefix  to  a  clergyman's  name.  This  Stephen, 
curate  of  St.  Catherine  Cree,  was  a  forerunner  of 
Puritanism,  who  sometimes  defiantly  preached  from 
an  elm  tree  in  the  chuchyard  and  read  the  serv 
ice  standing  on  a  tomb  on  the  north  side  of  the 
church.  He  wanted  the  saintly  names  of  churches 
and  the  heathen  names  of  days  of  the  week 
changed,  so  keen  was  his  scent  for  idolatry.  The 
parish  of  St.  Andrew  Undershaft  had  received  its 
distinctive  name  from  a  very  tall  May-pole  that 
overtopped  the  church  steeple.  This  pole  was 
erected  annually,  and  it  rested  from  one  May  to 
another  on  hooks  under  the  eaves  of  a  row  of 
houses  and  stalls.  In  the  newborn  Protestant  zeal 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


119 


against  idols  Sir  Stephen  denounced  especially  the 
lofty  shaft  of  St.  Andrew.  The  people  in  their 
rage  took  it  from  the  hooks  and  sawed  it  in  pieces, 
and  its  sections  were  appropriated  by  the  several 
householders  who  had  given  it  shelter  and  who 
presently  heaped  its  parts  upon  one  great  bonfire. 
Puritanism  kept  up  its  Don  Quixote  battle  against 
May-poles  until  there  was  hardly  one  standing  to 
seduce  the  people  to  idolatry.  When  the  Puritan 
party  came  into  power,  nearly  a  hundred  years 
after  the  days  of  Sir  Stephen  of  St.  Catherine  Cree, 
one  of  its  earliest  laws  ordered  that  all  May-poles 
— "  an  heathenish  vanity  generally  abused  to  super 
stition  and  wickedness  " — be  taken  down. 

XI. 

From  denouncing  constructive  idolatry  in  or 
gan  music,  litanies,  and  May-poles,  the  transition 
to  attack  on  the  more  real  and  substantial  evils  in 
ordinary  conduct  was  inevitable.  History  has 
many  examples  of  this  pervasiveness  of  scrupulos 
ity.  The  Puritan  conscience  had  been  let  loose 
to  tear  in  pieces  the  remnants  of  old  superstitions. 
It  was  certain  to  break  over  into  the  field  of  con 
duct.  Having  set  out  to  reform  the  church,  it  took 
the  world  by  the  way. 

As  early  as  1583  Philip  Stubbes,  a  Puritan 
lawyer,  issued  his  hot  little  book,  The  Anatomic  of 
Abuses.  It  deals  with  the  immoralities  and  ex 
travagances  of  the  time.  Stubbes  repeats  the  early 
Puritan  objection  to  the  May-pole  :  it  is  a  "  stinck- 


CHAP.  I. 

1549- 


Rush- 
worth,  Pt. 
Ill,  vol.  ii, 
749.    A.  D. 
1644. 


Austerity 
in  morals. 


I2O 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Pickering's 
ed.,p.  172. 


yng  idol,"  he  declares,  which  the  people  bring  from 
the  woods,  "following  it  with  greate  devotion." 
And  when  they  have  set  it  up  they  "  leape  and 
daunce  aboute  it,  as  the  heathen  people  did  at  the 
dedication  of  their  idolles."  But  Stubbes  takes  a 
step  forward  and  objects  to  the  all-night  May  frol 
ics  on  account  of  their  immorality.  He  says,  "  I 
have  heard  it  credibly  reported  by  men  of  great 
gravitie,  credite  and  reputation,  that  of  fourtie,  three 
score,  or  a  hundred  maides  goyng  to  the  woods 
over  night,  there  have  scarcely  the  third  parte  of 
them  returned  home  againe  undefiled."  As  men 
of  "  great  gravitie,  credite  and  reputation  "  were  not 
likely  to  know  the  facts  in  this  case,  some  of  the 
immorality  with  which  Stubbes  charges  the  young 
people  may  have  been  as  fanciful  as  the  heathenism 
attributed  to  them.  Imputed  unrighteousness  was 
a  part  of  the  Puritan  system.  He  denounces  the 
wild  excesses  in  dress  and  the  other  follies  of  the 
time  with  a  lack  of  a  sense  of  proportion  which  al 
ready  foreshadows  later  Puritanism. 

This  secondary  development  of  Puritanism  by 
which  its  energies  were  turned  toward  the  regula 
tion  of  conduct,  as  the  disputes  of  the  Reformation 
period  lost  their  violence,  gave  to  the  name  Puritan 
a  new  and  higher  sense.  It  is  a  phase  of  its  history 
more  important  than  all  its  primary  contentions 
over  gowns  and  liturgies  and  hierarchies,  or  its 
later  debates  about  the  five  points  of  Calvinism  and 
a  sabbatical  Sunday.  One  may  easily  forget  its 
austerity  and  extravagance,  for  by  the  reform  of 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


121 


manners  this  movement  made  the  English  race  its 
debtor.  In  no  succeeding  reaction  have  English 
morals  reverted  to  the  ante-Puritan  level.  It  is 
only  by  the  religious  ferments  infused  successively 
by  new  sects  and  movements,  of  preaching  friars, 
Lollards,  Puritans,  Quakers,  Methodists,  Salvation 
ists,  that  the  great  unleavened  mass  of  men  is  ren 
dered  gradually  less  sodden. 

XII. 

The  last  years  of  Elizabeth's  long  reign  were 
years  of  apparent  Puritan  decline.  The  old  bug 
bear  of  popery  was  receding  into  the  past,  and  a 
new  generation  had  come  on  the  stage  that  had 
no  memory  of  the  struggles  of  the  reigns  of 
Henry  and  Edward  and  Mary.  The  danger  from 
the  Armada  had  brought  English  patriotism  to 
the  point  of  fusion.  Even  the  persecuted  Catho 
lics  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  queen  against 
Philip.  The  government  of  Elizabeth  rose  to  the 
zenith  of  its  popularity  on  the  overthrow  of  the 
Armada.  It  was  just  at  this  inopportune  moment, 
when  the  nation  had  come  to  feel  that  the  Eng 
land  of  Elizabeth  was  the  greatest  England  the 
ages  had  known,  that  there  came  forth  from  a  small 
coterie  of  the  oppressed  ultra-Puritans  the  Martin 
Marprelate  tracts.  However  effective  these  may 
have  been  at  first  in  making  the  bishops  ridicu 
lous,  there  followed  a  swift  reaction.  The  Puri 
tans  were  dubbed  Martinists,  and  henceforth  had 
to  bear  the  odium  of  the  boisterous  vulgarity  and 


CHAP.  I. 


Puritan 
decline. 


Supra, 
page  115. 


122 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Rogers's 
Pref.  to  the 
39  Articles. 


libelous  exaggeration  of  the  Marprelate  lampoons. 
The  queen's  government,  stronger  now  than  ever 
in  the  affection  of  the  people,  put  in  force  severe 
ecclesiastical  measures  against  nonconformists  in 
the  church,  and  sent  Brownists,  or  Separatists, 
to  die  by  the  score  in  loathsome  prisons.  Half 
a  dozen  of  their  leaders  were  dispatched  by  the 
shorter  road  of  the  gallows.  The  long  reign  of 
the  queen  had  by  this  time  discouraged  those  who 
hoped  for  a  change  of  policy  at  her  death.  Hook 
er's  masterful  and  delightful  prose,  informed  by 
a  spirit  of  winning  moderation,  was  arrayed  on  the 
side  of  the  Anglicans  by  the  publication  of  parts 
of  his  Ecclesiastical  Polity  in  1594  and  1597.  But 
Puritanism  suffered  most  from  the  persistence  of 
Archbishop  Whitgift  and  others  in  efforts  to  sup 
press  all  nonconformity  in  the  church.  These 
champions  of  Anglicanism,  in  the  swaggering 
words  of  one  of  them,  "  defended  the  prelacy, 
stood  for  the  power  of  the  state,  put  the  new  doc 
tors  to  the  foil,  profligated  the  elders,  set  upon  the 
presbytery,  and  so  battered  the  new  discipline  as 
hitherto  they  could  never  nor  hereafter  shall  ever 
fortify  and  repair  the  decay  thereof."  The  pres 
byteries  which  Cartwright  and  his  friends  had 
formed  within  the  Church  of  England  were  swept 
out  utterly  by  the  archbishop's  broom.  The  Puri 
tan  movement  which  had  begun  almost  simultane 
ously  with  Elizabeth's  reign  seemed  to  be  doomed 
to  languish  and  die  with  the  old  queen  who  had 
been  its  resolute  and  lifelong  antagonist. 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


123 


XIII. 

For  the  first  thirty  years  or  more  of  its  exist 
ence  Puritanism  was  mainly  a  bundle  of  negations, 
and  no  bundle  of  mere  negations  is  a  sufficient  rea 
son  for  maintaining  a  party.  No  vestments,  no 
ceremonies,  no  bishops,  were  effective  cries  in  the 
hot  Reformation  period.  But  the  new  generation 
had  ceased  to  abhor  these  left-overs  of  Romanism. 
Bishops,  gowns,  prayer  books,  had  become  Protes 
tant  to  most  of  the  people  by  association.  To  find 
additional  reasons  for  differing  from  Anglican  op 
ponents  was  a  party  necessity.  The  new  debates 
which  sprang  up  in  the  last  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century  were  not  deliberately  planned  by  the  Puri 
tans,  as  some  of  their  opponents  asserted.  They 
came  by  a  process  of  evolution.  But  a  period  of 
temporary  decline  in  a  movement  of  this  sort 
hastens  its  natural  unfolding.  The  leaders  are 
forced  to  seek  the  advantage  of  such  new  issues  as 
offer  when  the  old  ones  fail.  In  the  last  years  of 
Elizabeth,  Puritanism  was  molting,  not  dying. 

XIV. 

The  great  reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century 
had  sought  to  strip  from  the  Christianity  of  their 
time  what  they  deemed  the  second-hand  garments 
of  Judaism.  Along  with  the  theory  of  a  priest 
hood  they  declared  also  against  a  doctrine  known 
in  the  church  at  least  from  the  fifth  century,  that 
the  fourth  commandment  enforced  on  Christians 


CHAP.  I. 


Seeking  a 

positive 

ground. 

Note  7. 


The  Puri 
tan  Sab 
bath. 


124 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Rise  of  the 
strict  Sab 
bath. 


the  keeping  sacred  in  some  sense  of  Sundays  and 
other  church  holy  days.  Luther  maintained  that 
commandment  to  keep  the  Sabbath  "literally 
understood  does  not  apply  to  Christians,  for  it  is 
entirely  outward,  like  other  ordinances  of  the  Old 
Testament."  He  thought  a  festival  day  important 
for  rest  and  for  attending  religious  worship ;  but 
with  characteristic  oppugnancy  he  says  :  "  If  any 
where  the  day  is  made  holy  for  the  mere  day's 
sake,  .  .  .  then  I  order  you  to  dance  on  it,  and 
feast  on  it,  to  do  anything  that  shall  remove  this 
encroachment  on  Christian  liberty."  The  Augs 
burg  Confession  makes  a  similar  statement  of  the 
Protestant  position.  Calvin  considered  the  fourth 
commandment  binding  on  Christians  only  in  a 
sense  mystical  and  highly  Calvinistic.  It  signified 
that  "  we  should  rest  from  our  own  works  "  under 
the  Christian  dispensation.  He  even  suggested 
that  some  other  day  of  the  week  might  be  chosen 
as  a  day  of  rest  and  worship  at  Geneva  for  an  ex 
hibition  of  Christian  liberty  in  this  regard.  His 
practice  was  conformed  to  his  theory.  It  is  inci 
dentally  related  that  when  John  Knox  once  visited 
the  Genevan  reformer  on  Sunday,  he  found  him 
playing  at  bowls.  Knox  was  not  more  a  Sabba 
tarian  than  Calvin. 

xv. 

Writers  on  this  subject  have  generally  agreed 
in  dating  the  rise  of  the  Puritan  Sabbath  from  the 
appearance,  in  1595,  of  Dr.  Bownd's  book  on  The 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


12$ 


Sabbath  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament. 
But  the  doctrine  of  the  strict  keeping  of  Sunday 
may  be  traced  farther  back.  In  truth,  the  differ 
ence  between  the  English  and  the  Continental  Sun 
day  dates  from  the  Reformation.  The  protests  of 
Luther  and  Calvin  go  to  show  that  Sunday  had  in 
the  church  before  the  Reformation,  theoretically 
if  not  in  practice,  the  sanctity  of  a  church  feast. 
The  English  Reformation  was  conservative,  like  all 
other  English  revolutions.  English  reformers  re 
tained  the  Catholic  Sunday,  as  they  did  the  vest 
ments  and  national  hierarchy  of  the  old  church. 
Thomas  Hancock  has  been  styled  "  the  Luther  of 
the  southwest  of  England."  He  was  the  great 
preacher  of  Poole  in  the  days  of  Edward  VI. 
That  he,  like  other  English  reformers,  did  not 
agree  with  Luther  in  rejecting  the  obligation  to 
rest  on  Sunday  is  shown  by  the  record,  for  the 
voice  of  Poole  was  the  voice  of  Hancock.  About 
1550  the  juries  in  the  Admiralty  Court  of  Poole 
were  charged  to  inquire  into  Sunday  fishing ;  and 
so  advanced  was  the  premature  Puritanism  of  Ed 
ward's  time  that  even  the  leaving  of  nets  in  the  sea 
over  Sunday  was  to  be  investigated.  Here  was  a 
strictness  unknown  in  Catholic  times. 

XVI. 

The  word  Sabbath  does  not  occur  in  these 
early  entries.  But  in  the  troubles  among  the 
Marian  exiles  at  Frankfort,  where  so  many  other 
traits  of  Puritanism  first  came  above  the  horizon,  it 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  8. 


Compare 
Marsden's 
Early  Puri 
tans  (1850) 
page  242, 
where  Be- 
con's  Cate 
chism  and 
Coverdale 
are  quoted. 


Robert's 
Social 
Hist,  of  the 
Southern 
Counties, 
p.  239. 


Note  9. 


126 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Early  Eng 
lish  Text 
Society  Re 
print,  106, 
107,  108. 


is  significant  that  one  finds  Sunday  called  the  Sab 
bath.  Sabbath  as  applied  to  Sunday  occurs  first 
in  literature,  perhaps,  in  1573,  and  then  it  is  con 
sidered  necessary  to  explain  it.  Bullein's  Dialogue 
against  the  Fever  Pestilence,  a  work  of  consider 
able  popularity,  first  appeared  as  early  as  1564.  In 
the  edition  of  1573  there  was  inserted  a  new  pas 
sage  not  found  in  the  earlier  issue.  Mendax  is  re 
lating  incredible  tales  of  travel  in  lands  unknown, 
after  the  manner  of  David  Ingram  and  other  re 
turned  adventurers.  Up  to  this  point  all  is  pure 
lying  merely  for  the  fun  of  the  thing,  or  perhaps  to 
ridicule  the  exaggerations  of  travelers.  But  the 
interpolated  passage  is  not  of  a  piece  with  the  old 
garment  into  which  it  is  patched.  It  is  less  gro 
tesque  and  humorous,  and  it  smacks  of  incipient 
Puritanism  in  several  flavors.  It  treats  first  of  all 
of  the  "  Kepyng  of  the  Saboth  Daie,"  "  whiche  is 
the  seventh  daie,  that  is  sondaie,"  in  the  imaginary 
city  of  "  Nodnol,"  an  anagram  of  London.  The 
gates  are  shut,  and  nobody  is  allowed  to  "goe, 
neither  ride  forth  of  the  Citie  duryng  that  daie, 
except  it  be  after  the  euenyng  praier ;  then  to 
walke  honestlie  into  the  sweete  fieldes,  and  at 
every  gate  in  the  time  of  service  there  are  ward 
ers."  "  What  so  ever  hee  be  he  muste  kepe  hollie 
the  Sabboth  daie,  and  come  to  the  churche  both 
man,  woman,  young  and  olde."  "  There  were  no 
people  walking  abroad  in  the  service  tyme ;  no, 
not  a  Dogge  or  catte  in  the  streate,  neither  any 
Taverne  doore  open  that  daie,  nor  wine  bibbyng 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


127 


in  them,  but  onely  almose,  fasting  and  praier." 
This  is  perhaps  the  oldest  extant  statement  of  an 
early  Puritan  ideal  of  Sabbath-keeping. 

XVII. 

Scruples  regarding  recreations  on  Sunday 
come  distinctly  into  view  in  the  title  of  a  sermon 
preached  at  Paul's  Cross  in  1576.  In  1580  the 
magistrates  of  London  secured  from  the  queen  a 
prohibition  of  the  performance  of  plays  within  the 
limits  of  the  city  on  Sundays.  In  other  municipali 
ties — Brighton,  Yarmouth,  and  Lyme — ordinances 
were  made  about  this  time  against  such  offenses  as 
the  prosecution  on  Sunday  of  the  herring  fisheries, 
cloth  working,  and  other  labors,  and  even  against 
the  Sunday  practice  of  archery,  formerly  thought 
a  patriotic  exercise.  There  are  other  evidences  of 
a  movement,  especially  in  the  south  of  England,  in 
favor  of  a  stricter  Sabbath  in  these  and  the  fol 
lowing  years.  Stubbes  does  not  fail  to  denounce 
"  heathnicall  exercises  upon  the  Sabbaoth  day, 
which  the  Lorde  would  have  consecrated  to  holy 
uses."  The  Puritan  mode  of  Sabbath-keeping  al 
ready  existed  among  the  chosen  few.  "  The  Sab- 
both  daie  of  some  is  well  observed,"  says  Stubbes, 
"  namely,  in  hearing  the  blessed  worde  of  God 
read,  preached,  and  interpreted  ;  in  private  and 
publique  praiers ;  in  reading  of  godly  psalmes  ;  in 
celebrating  the  sacraments  ;  and  in  collecting  for 
the  poore  and  indigent,  which  are  the  true  uses 
and  endes  whereto  the  Sabbaoth  was  ordained." 


CHAP.  I. 


Cox's  Lit 
erature  of 
the  Sab 
bath  Ques 
tion,  sub 
anno. 


Robert's 
Southern 
Counties, 
pp.  238, 
239- 


1583- 


128 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


1588. 


Bownd  on 
the  Sab 
bath. 

1595- 


1592. 


He  records  the  opposite  belief  of  his  opponents 
that  Sunday  was  ordained  "  onely  to  use  what 
kinde  of  exercises  they  thinke  good  themselves." 
In  practice  this  was  the  rule  of  the  English  peo 
ple  at  large.  These  opposite  opinions  come  into 
view  when  Martin  Marprelate  a  few  years  later 
berates  the  Bishop  of  London  for  playing  at  bowls 
on  Sunday. 

XVIII. 

Dr.  Bownd's  book  on  The  Sabbath  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testament,  which,  if  we  may  be 
lieve  its  opponents,  was  nearly  ten  years  "  in 
the  hammering,"  was  the  outcome  of  a  senti 
ment  already  rising  among  the  Puritans,  and 
not  wholly  confined  to  that  party.  It  was  pre 
ceded  by  a  little  work  of  Richard  Greenham 
which  seems  to  have  been  circulated  for  some 
years  in  manuscript  after  a  fashion  of  that  time, 
and  to  have  had  at  first  more  influence  on  prac 
tice  than  Bownd's  formal  treatise.  Greenham  was 
Bownd's  stepfather,  and  his  work  was  the  parent 
of  Bownd's,  which  is  distinctly  more  extreme.  But 
Dr.  Bownd's  book  is  none  the  less  memorable  as  a 
point  of  departure,  because  in  it  the  opinions  on 
this  subject  which  have  since  prevailed  so  gener 
ally  in  all  English-speaking  lands  "  were  for  the 
first  time  broadly  and  prominently  asserted  in 
Christendom  "  ;  at  least,  they  were  here  first  sys 
tematically  propounded  and  defended.  Bownd 
held  that  the  fourth  commandment  is  partly  moral, 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


129 


in  the  phrase  of  the  casuists.  He  shifted  the  obli 
gation  to  the  first  day  of  the  week  by  arguments 
now  familiar,  and  he  laid  down  rules  for  the  ob 
servance  of  the  day.  Honest  recreations  and  law 
ful  delights  he  flatly  forbids  on  Sundays,  but  he 
rather  obsequiously  makes  some  allowance  for  the 
"  feasts  of  noblemen  and  great  personages  on  this 
day."  People  of  rank  do  not  wholly  escape  him, 
however,  for  he  points  a  moral  with  the  story  of  a 
nobleman  whose  child  was  born  with  a  face  like 
that  of  a  dog,  because  the  father  had  hunted  on 
the  Lord's  Day.  He  allows  the  ringing  of  only 
one  bell  to  call  the  people  to  church  on  Sunday. 
Chimes  were  quite  too  pleasing  to  accord  with  a 
severe  Sabbath. 

XIX. 

Such  rigor  fell  in  with  the  passion  of  that 
age  for  formal  observance  and  with  the  exi 
gent  temper  of  the  Puritans  by  whom  Bownd's 
views  were  rapidly  and  universally  accepted. 
The  stricter  divines  might  well  be  glad  of  a 
new  lever  for  reforming  the  old  English  Sun 
day,  which  was  devoted,  out  of  service  time,  to 
outdoor  games,  to  the  brutally  cruel  sports  of 
bull  and  bear  baiting,  to  merry  morris-dances, 
in  which  the  performers  were  gayly  decked  and 
hung  with  jingling  bells  in  different  keys,  as 
well  as  to  coarse  farces  called  interludes,  which 
were  played  on  stages  under  booths  and  some 
times  in  the  churches.  As  an  austere  reaction 
10 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  10. 


Spread  of 

Bownd's 

opinions. 


Cart- 
wright's 
Admoni 
tion  to  Par 
liament, 
J572. 
Robert's 
Southern 
Counties, 
PP-  37,  38. 


130 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


against  frivolity,  Puritanism  pushed  Sabbath-keep 
ing  to  its  extreme,  reprobating  even  the  most 
innocent  and  domestic  recreations,  and  changing 
a  day  of  rest  and  refreshment  into  one  of  alter- 
nate  periods  of  application  to  religious  devotion 
and  of  scrupulous  vacuity.  Bownd's  rather  ultra 
propositions  were  carried  yet  further  when  re 
produced  by  high-strung  preachers.  It  is  said 
that  some  of  these  declared  that  the  ringing  of 
more  than  one  bell  to  call  people  to  church  on 
the  Sabbath  was  as  great  a  sin  as  murder,  adul 
tery,  or  parricide.  The  lack  of  a  sense  of  pro 
portion  is  the  specific  distinction  of  the  zealot  and 
the  polemic.  This  lack  was  not  peculiar  to  the 
Puritans,  however.  Joseph  Hall,  afterward  a  well- 
known  bishop,  could  address  men  so  worthy  as 
John  Robinson  and  his  colleague  in  such  words 
as  these :  "  Your  souls  shall  find  too  late  .  .  . 
that  even  whoredoms  and  murders  shall  abide  an 
easier  answer  than  separation."  Perhaps  one  may 
rather  say  that  a  lack  of  the  sense  of  proportion 
in  morals  was  a  trait  of  that  age,  an  age  of  zealots 
and  polemics. 

xx. 

In  such  a  time  Dr.  Bownd's  book  easily  cap 
tivated  the  religious  public,  and  there  arose  a 
passion  for  a  stricter  Sabbath.  According  to 
Fuller,  the  Lord's  Day,  especially  in  towns,  "  be 
gan  to  be  precisely  kept,  people  becoming  a 
law  to  themselves,  forbearing  such  sports  as  yet 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


by  statute  permitted  ;  yea,  many  rejoicing  at 
their  own  restraint  herein.  On  this  day  the 
stoutest  fencer  laid  down  the  buckler ;  the  most 
skillful  archer  unbent  the  bow,  counting-  all 
shooting  beside  the  mark  ;  May-games  and  mor 
ris-dancers  grew  out  of  request ;  and  good  reason 
that  bells  should  be  silenced  from  jingling  about 
men's  legs,  if  their  very  ringing  in  steeples  were 
adjudged  unlawful."  Some  learned  scholars  were 
impressed  by  Bownd's  argument,  and  others  who 
did  not  agree  with  his  conclusions  thought  it  best 
not  to  gainsay  them,  "  because  they  tended  to  the 
manifest  advance  of  religion."  And  indeed  the 
new  zeal  for  Sabbath-keeping  must  have  inciden 
tally  promoted  morals  and  good  order  in  so  licen 
tious  an  age. 

But  a  violent  opposition  quickly  arose.  Some 
opposed  the  book  as  "  galling  men's  necks  with 
a  Jewish  yoke  against  the  liberty  of  Christians," 
and  many  of  the  clergy  of  the  new  high-church 
type  resented  the  doctrine  of  a  Christian  Sab 
bath,  asserting  that  it  put  "  an  unequal  lustre 
on  the  Sunday  on  set  purpose  to  eclipse  all 
other  holy  days  to  the  derogation  of  the  author 
ity  of  the  church."  There  were  those  who  as 
serted  that  the  "  brethren,"  as  they  styled  them, 
had  brought  forth  Bownd's  book,  intending  by 
this  "  attack  from  an  odd  corner "  to  retrieve 
lost  ground.  The  manifest  advantage  to  Puritan 
ism  from  the  shifting  of  the  ground  of  debate, 
aroused  Archbishop  Whitgift.  In  1599  he  made 


CHAP.  I. 


Fuller's 
Ch.  Hist, 
of  Britain, 
book  ix, 
sect,  viii, 

2O,  21. 


Opposi 
tion  to 
Bownd. 


Fuller's 
Church 
History, 
book  ix, 
sect,  viii, 
21. 


Note  ii. 


132 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  n. 


Note  12. 


1611. 


Note  13. 


Effect  on 
Puritan 
ism. 


the  tactical  mistake  of  ordering  the  book  called 
in,  and  in  1600  Chief-Justice  Popham  forbade 
the  reprinting  of  it.  The  price  of  the  work 
was  doubled  at  once,  and  it  was  everywhere 
sought  for,  books  being  "  more  called  on  when 
called  in,"  as  Fuller  says.  When  it  could  not 
be  had  in  print,  it  was  transcribed  by  enthusi 
astic  admirers  and  circulated  "  from  friend  to 
friend  "  in  manuscript.  As  soon  as  Whitgift's 
"  head  was  laid,"  a  new  and  enlarged  edition 
was  published. 

The  theory  of  a  Sunday-Sabbath,  which  from 
the  first  was  not  confined  to  the  Puritans,  per 
meated  English  and  American  thought  and  life. 
But  from  that  time  forward  the  Puritans  made 
rigid  Sabbath-keeping  the  very  mark  and  pass 
word  of  the  faithful.  From  England  the  theory 
spread  northward  to  Scotland,  where  it  found  a 
congenial  soil.  The  strict  observance  of  Sunday 
was  embodied  in  those  Laws,  Divine,  Moral,  and 
Martial,  under  which  Sir  Thomas  Dale  oppressed 
Virginia,  years  before  the  earliest  Puritan  migra 
tion  carried  it  to  the  coast  of  New  England. 
On  that  coast  Bownd's  Sabbath  took  on  its 
deepest  hue,  becoming  at  last  as  grievous  an 
evil,  perhaps,  as  the  frivolity  it  had  supplanted. 

XXI. 

The  Puritans  protesting  against  Hebraism  in 
vestments,  in  priesthood,  in  liturgy,  and  in  festivals, 
fell  headlong  into  the  Pharisaism  of  the  rigid  Sab- 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


133 


bath.  History  records  many  similar  phenomena. 
To  escape  from  the  spirit  of  one's  age  is  difficult 
for  an  individual,  impossible  perhaps  for  a  sect 
or  party.  Nevertheless,  the  Sabbath  agitation 
had  given  a  new  impulse  to  the  Puritan  move 
ment — had,  indeed,  given  it  a  positive  party  cry, 
and  had  furnished  it  with  a  visible  badge  of 
superior  sanctity. 

The  Calvinistic  controversy  which  broke  out 
almost  simultaneously  with  that  about  the  Sab 
bath  and  prevailed  throughout  the  reign  of 
James  I,  added  yet  one  more  issue,  by  making 
Puritanism  the  party  of  a  stern  and  conserva 
tive  orthodoxy,  as  opposed  to  the  newer  Armin- 
ianism  which  spread  so  quickly  among  the  High- 
Church  clergy.  From  all  these  fresh  developments 
Puritanism  gained  in  power  and  compactness,  if 
it  lost  something  of  simplicity  and  spirituality. 
Standing  for  ultra-Protestantism,  for  good  morals, 
for  an  ascetic  Sabbath,  for  a  high  dogmatic  ortho 
dox}^,  Puritanism  could  not  but  win  the  allegiance 
of  the  mass  of  the  English  people,  and  especially 
of  the  middle  class.  It  was  this  new,  compact, 
austere,  dogmatic,  self-confident  Puritanism,  when 
it  had  become  a  political  as  well  as  a  religious 
movement,  that  obliterated  Laud  and  Charles  and 
set  up  the  Commonwealth.  And  in  studying  the 
evolution  of  this  later  Puritanism  we  have  been 
present  at  the  shaping  of  New  England  in  Old 
England. 


CHAP.  I. 


The  new 
Puritan 
ism. 


134 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

Evelyn's  Diary,  pp.  4,  5;  date,  1634:  "My  father  was  ap 
pointed  Sheriff  for  Surrey  and  Sussex  before  they  were  disjoyned. 
He  had  116  servants  in  liverys,  everyone  livery'd  in  greene  sattin 
doublets.  Divers  gentlemen  and  persons  of  quality  waited  on 
him  in  the  same  garbe  and  habit,  which  at  that  time  (when  30  or 
40  was  the  usual  retinue  of  a  High  Sheriff)  was  esteem'd  a  great 
matter.  .  .  .  He  could  not  refuse  the  civility  of  his  friends  and 
relations  who  voluntarily  came  themselves,  or  sent  in  their  serv 
ants."  Compare  Chamberlain's  remarks  about  Sir  George  Yearcl- 
ley,  whom  he  styles  "a  mean  fellow,"  and  says  that  the  king 
had  knighted  him  when  he  was  appointed  Governor  of  Virginia, 
"  which  hath  set  him  up  so  high  that  he  flaunts  it  up  and  down 
the  streets  in  extraordinary  bravery  with  fourteen  or  fifteen  fair 
liveries  after  him."  Domestic  Correspondence,  James  I,  No.  1 10, 
Calendar,  p.  598.  The  propriety  of  keeping  so  many  idle  serving 
men  is  sharply  called  in  question  in  a  tract  entitled  Cyuile  and 
Vncyuile  Life,  1579,  and  an  effort  is  made  to  prove  the  dignity  of 
a  serving  man's  position,  while  its  decline  is  confessed  in  A 
Health  to  the  Gentlemanly  Profession  of  Servingmen,  1598.  Both 
of  these  tracts  are  reprinted  in  Inedited  Tracts,  etc.,  Roxburghe 
Library,  1868.  The  serving  man  was  not  a  menial.  He  ren 
dered  personal  services  to  his  master  or  to  guests,  he  could 
carve  on  occasion,  and  as  a  successor  to  the  military  retainers 
of  an  earlier  time  he  was  ready  to  fight  in  any  of  his  master's 
quarrels ;  but  his  principal  use  was  to  lend  dignity  to  the  man 
sion  and  to  amuse  the  master  or  his  guests  with  conversation 
during  lonely  hours  in  the  country  house.  Among  the  first 
Jamestown  emigrants  were  some  of  these  retainers,  as  we  have 
seen. 

The  Anatomic  of  Abuses,  by  Philip  Stubbes,  1583,  Pickering's 
reprint,  pages  16,  17  :  "  It  is  lawfull  for  the  nobilitie,  the  gentrie 
and  magisterie  to  weare  riche  attire,  euery  one  in  their  call- 
yng.  The  nobility  and  gentrie  to  innoble,  garnish,  and  set  forth 
birthes,  dignities,  and  estates.  The  magisterie  to  dignifie  their 
callynges.  .  .  .  But  now  there  is  suche  a  confuse  mingle  mangle 
of  apparell,  and  suche  preposterous  excesse  thereof,  as  euery  one 
is  permitted  to  flaunt  it  out  in  what  agparell  he  lusteth  himself, 
or  can  get  by  any  kinde  of  meanes.  So  that  it  is  very  hard  to 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


135 


know  who  is  noble,  who  is  worshipfull,  who  is  a  gentleman,  who 
is  not ;  for  you  shal  haue  those  which  are  neither  of  the  nobilitie, 
gentilitie  nor  yeomanrie  ...  go  daiely  in  silkes,  veluettes,  satens, 
damaskes,  taffaties  and  suche  like  ;  notwithstanding  that  they  be 
bothe  base  by  birthe,  meane  by  estate,  and  seruile  by  callyng. 
And  this  I  compte  a  greate  confusion,  and  a  generall  disorder  in 
a  Christian  common  wealth." 

A  Brieff  Discourse  of  the  Troubles  begun  at  Frankfort,  1 564, 
is  the  primary  authority.  It  is  almost  beyond  doubt  that  Whit- 
tingham,  Dean  of  Durham,  a  participant  in  the  troubles,  wrote 
the  book.  The  Frankfort  struggles  have  been  discussed  recently 
in  Mr.  Hinds's  The  Making  of  the  England  of  Elizabeth,  but,  like 
all  writers  on  the  subject,  Hinds  is  obliged  to  depend  almost 
solely  on  Whittingham's  account.  The  several  volumes  of  letters 
from  the  archives  of  Zurich,  published  by  the  Parker  Society, 
give  a  good  insight  into  the  forces  at  work  in  the  English  Refor 
mation.  See,  for  example,  in  the  volume  entitled  Original  Letters, 
1537-1558,  that  of  Thomas  Sampson  to  Calvin,  dated  Strasburgh, 
February  23,  1555,  which  shows  the  Puritan  movement  half 
fledged  at  this  early  date  when  Calvin's  authoritative  advice  is  in 
voked.  "  The  flame  is  lighted  up  with  increased  vehemence 
amongst  us  English.  For  a  strong  controversy  has  arisen,  while 
some  desire  the  book  of  reformation  of  the  Church  of  England  to 
be  set  aside  altogether,  others  only  deem  some  things  in  it  ob 
jectionable,  such  as  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Supper,  the  linen  sur 
plice,  and  other  matters  of  this  kind  ;  "but  the  rest  of  it,  namely, 
the  prayers,  scripture  lessons  and  the  form  of  the  administration 
of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  they  wish  to  be  retained." 

There  are  many  and  conflicting  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the 
name.  In  the  Narragansett  Club  Publications,  ii,  197-199,  there 
is  an  interesting  statement  of  some  of  these  by  the  editor  of  Cot 
ton's  Answer  to  Roger  Williams,  in  a  note. 

That  the  Puritans  early  made  common  cause  with  the  suffering 
tenantry  is  not  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Philip  Stubbes,  in  1583, 
in  the  Anatomic  of  Abuses,  pp.  126,  127,  writes  :  "  They  take  in 
and  inclose  commons,  moores,  heathes,  and  other  common  pas 
tures,  where  out  the  poore  commonaltie  were  wont  to  haue  all 
their  forrage  and  feedyng  for  their  cattell,  and  (whiche  is  more) 
corne  for  themselves  to  liue  vpon  ;  all  which  are  now  in  most 
places  taken  from  them,  by  these  greedie  puttockes  to  the  great 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  3, 
page  106. 


Note  4, 
page  106. 


Note  5, 
page  in. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


impouerishyng  and  vtter  beggeryng  of  many  whole  townes  and 
parishes.  .  .  .  For  these  inclosures  bee  the  causes  why  riche  men 
eate  vpp  poore  men,  as  beastes  dooe  eate  grasse."  One  might 
cite  recent  economic  writers  on  the  effect  of  inclosures,  but  the 
conservative  laments  of  the  antiquary  Aubrey,  in  his  Introduction 
to  the  Survey  of  Wiltshire,  written  about  1663,  give  us  a  nearer 
and  more  picturesque,  if  less  philosophical,  view.  He  says : 
"  Destroying  of  Manours  began  Temp.  Hen.  VIII.,  but  now  com 
mon  ;  whereby  the  mean  People  live  lawless,  no  body  to  govern 
them,  they  care  for  no  body,  having  no  Dependance  on  any  Body. 
By  this  Method,  and  by  the  Selling  of  the  Church-Lands,  is  the 
Ballance  of  the  Government  quite  alter'd  and  put  into  the  Hands 
of  the  common  People."  Writing  from  what  he  had  heard  from 
his  grandfather,  he  says :  "  Anciently  the  Leghs  i.  e.  Pastures 
were  noble  large  Grounds.  ...  So  likewise  in  his  Remembrance 
was  all  between  Kington  St.  Michael  and  Dracot-Ferne  common 
Fields.  Then  were  a  world  of  labouring  People  maintained  by 
the  Plough.  .  .  .  There  were  no  Rates  for  the  Poor  in  my  Grand 
father's  Days  .  .  .  the  Church-ale  at  Whitsuntide  did  the  Busi 
ness.  .  .  .  Since  the  Reformation  and  Inclosures  aforesaid  these 
Parts  have  swarm'd  with  poor  People.  The  Parish  of  Cain  pays 
to  the  Poor  500^  per  annum.  .  .  .  Inclosures  are  for  the  private, 
not  for  the  publick  Good.  For  a  Shepherd  and  his  Dog,  or  a 
Milk-Maid,  can  manage  Meadow-Land,  that  upon  arable,  em- 
ploy'd  the  Hands  of  several  Scores  of  Labourers."  Miscellanies 
on  Several  Curious  Subjects,  now  first  published,  etc.,  1723,  pp. 
30-33.  It  will  fall  within  the  province  of  another  volume  of  this 
series  to  treat  of  the  systems  of  landholding  brought  from  Eng 
land,  and  I  shall  not  go  further  into  the  subject  of  inclosures  here. 
A  portion  of  the  agricultural  population  seemed  superfluous  in 
consequence  of  inclosures,  and  colonization  was  promoted  as  a 
means  of  ridding  the  country  of  the  excess  of  its  population. 

In  the  matterof  Church  government  Puritanism  passed  through 
three  different  periods.  In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  the  Church- 
Puritan  was  mainly  Presbyterian  under  Cartwright's  lead. 
But  there  was  even  then  a  current  that  set  toward  Independency. 
Separatism  was  the  outward  manifestation  of  this  tendency,  and 
according  to  Ralegh's  estimate,  cited  in  the  text,  there  were  about 
twenty  thousand  declared  Separatists  in  England  in  1 593.  After 
the  suppression  of  the  presbyteries  within  the  Church  in  the  last 
years  of  Elizabeth,  and  the  crushing  out  of  the  Separatists  by  rig- 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


137 


orous  persecutions,  questions  of  the  particular  form  of  Church 
government  fell  into  abeyance  among  the  Puritans  for  about  forty 
years.  "  Indiscriminate  anti-prelacy  was  the  prevailing  mood  of 
the  English  people,"  says  Masson,  "  and  the  distinction  between 
Presbyterianism  and  Independency  was  yet  caviare  to  the  gen 
eral."  Life  of  Milton,  ii,  590.  Richard  Baxter,  the  Puritan  divine 
(as  quoted  by  Masson),  confesses  in  1641  that  until  that  year  he 
had  never  thought  what  Presbytery  or  Independency  was,  or  ever 
spoke  with  a  man  who  seemed  to  know  it.  See  also  Hanbury's 
Memorials,  ii,  69.  Writers  on  this  period  do  not  seem  to  recog 
nize  the  fact  that  the  two  views  were  in  some  rivalry  among  the 
early  Puritans,  and  that  the  theory  of  the  independence  of  the  local 
church  seems  to  have  been  at  least  foreshadowed  in  the  opinions 
at  Frankfort.  But  there  was  a  long  generation  in  which  these 
differences  among  the  Puritans  were  forgotten  in  their  life-and- 
death  conflict  with  the  Episcopal  party.  Then,  as  Puritanism 
came  into  power,  the  example  of  other  Protestant  European  coun 
tries  drew  England  toward  Presbyterianism,  while  the  voice  of  New 
England  came  from  over  the  sea  pleading  for  Congregationalism. 

A  letter  of  Sandys,  afterward  Archbishop  of  York,  to  Bullinger, 
quoted  by  Marsden,  Early  Puritans,  57,  shows  that  though  Puri 
tanism  by  1573  had  become  something  other  than  it  was  at 
Frankfort,  it  was  still  mainly  negative.  Sandys  writes  :  "  New  ora 
tors  are  rising  up  from  among  us  ;  foolish  young  men  who  despise 
authority  and  admit  of  no  superior.  They  are  seeking  the  com 
plete  overthrow  and  uprooting  of  the  whole  of  our  ecclesiastical 
polity;  and  striving  to  shape  out  for  us  I  know  not  what  new 
platform  of  a  church."  He  gives  a  summary  under  nine  heads. 
The  assertion  that  each  parish  should  have  its  own  "  presby 
tery  "  and  choose  its  own  minister,  and  that  the  judicial  laws  of 
Moses  were  binding,  are  the  only  positive  ones.  No  authority 
of  the  magistrate  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  no  government  of  the 
Church  except  by  ministers,  elders,  and  deacons,  the  taking  away 
of  all  titles,  dignities,  lands,  and  revenues  of  bishops,  etc.,  from 
the  Church,  the  allowing  of  no  ministers  but  actual  pastors,  the 
refusal  of  baptism  to  the  children  of  papists,  fill  the  rest  of  this 
summary.  One  misses  from  this  skeleton  the  insistence  on  Sab 
bath-keeping,  church-going,  "  ordinances,"  and  ascetic  austerity 
in  morals  that  afterward  became  distinctive  traits  of  the  party. 

Augustine  and  other  early  doctors  of  the  Church  held  to  a 
Sunday-Sabbath  in  the  fifth  century,  basing  it  largely  on  grounds 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  7, 
page  123. 


Note  8, 
page  125. 


138 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


that  now  seem  mystical.  Compare  Coxe  on  Sabbath  Laws  and 
Sabbath  Duties,  284,  note,  and  Cook's  Historical  and  General 
View  of  Christianity,  ii,  301,  cited  by  Coxe.  The  question  was 
variously  treated  during  the  middle  ages,  St.  Thomas  Aquinas 
and  other  schoolmen  taking  the  prevalent  modern  view  that  the 
fourth  commandment  was  partly  moral  and  partly  ceremonial. 
There  is  a  curious  story,  for  which  I  do  not  know  the  original  au 
thority,  of  Eustachius,  Abbot  of  Hay,  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
who  on  his  return  from  the  Holy  Land  preached  from  city  to 
city  against  buying  and  selling  on  Sundays  and  saints'  days.  He 
had  with  him  a  copy  of  a  document  dropped  from  heaven  and 
found  on  the  altar  of  St.  Simon,  on  Mount  Golgotha.  This 
paper  threatened  that  if  the  command  were  disobeyed  it  should 
rain  stones  and  wood  and  hot  water  in  the  night,  and,  as  if 
such  showers  were  not  enough,  wild  beasts  were  to  devour  the 
Sabbath-breakers.  That  there  was  a  difference  of  opinion  in  that 
age  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Roger  Bacon,  later  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  thought  it  worth  while  to  assert  that  Christians  should 
work  and  hold  fairs  on  Sunday,  while  Saturday  was  the  proper 
day  for  rest.  He  showed  no  document  from  heaven,  but,  like  a 
true  philosopher  of  that  time,  the  learned  friar  appealed  to  argu 
ments  drawn  from  astrology.  Hearne's  Remains,  ii,  177,  cites 
Mirandula.  Legislation  by  Parliament  regarding  Sunday  ob 
servance  was  rare  before  the  Reformation.  A  statute  of  28  Ed 
ward  III  incidentally  excepts  Sunday  from  the  days  on  which 
wool  may  be  shorn,  and  one  of  27  Henry  VI  forbids  the  keeping 
of  fairs  and  markets  on  Sundays,  Good  Fridays,  and  principal  fes 
tivals  except  four  Sundays  in  harvest.  In  4  Edward  IV  a  statute 
was  passed  forbidding  the  sale  of  shoes  on  Sundays  and  certain 
festivals. 

In  the  "Injunctions  by  King  Edward  VI,"  1547,  Bishop 
Sparrow's  Collection,  edition  of  1671,  p.  8,  there  is  a  remarkable 
statement  of  what  may  be  called  the  Edwardean  view  of  Sunday 
as  distinguished  from  the  opinions  and  practice  that  had  come 
down  from  times  preceding  the  Reformation  :  "  God  is  more  of 
fended  than  pleased,  more  dishonoured  than  honoured  upon  the 
holy-day  because  of  idleness,  pride,  drunkenness,"  etc.  The  re 
ligious  and  moral  duties  to  which  the  "  holy-day,"  as  it  is  called, 
should  be  strictly  devoted  are  there  specified.  But,  true  to  the 
position  of  compromise,  halfwayness,  and  one  might  add  para 
dox,  which  the  English  Reformation  took  from  the  beginning, 


Rise  and  Development  of  Puritanism. 


139 


there  is  added  in  the  same  paragraph  the  following:  "Yet  not 
withstanding  all  Parsons,  Vicars,  and  Curates,  shall  teach  and 
declare  unto  their  Parishioners,  that  they  may  with  a  safe  and 
quiet  conscience,  in  the  time  of  Harvest,  labour  upon  the  holy 
and  festival  days  and  save  that  thing  which  God  hath  sent.  And 
if  for  any  scrupulosity,  or  grudge  of  conscience,  men  should  su- 
perstitiously  abstain  from  working  upon  those  days,  that  then  they 
should  grievously  offend  and  displease  God."  See  also  "  Thacte 
made  for  thabrogacion  of  certayne  holy-dayes,"  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII,  1536,  in  the  same  black-letter  collection,  p.  167.  In 
this  act  "  Sabboth-day  "  occurs,  but  apparently  with  reference  to 
the  Jewish  Sabbath  only.  "  Sonday  "  is  used  for  Sunday. 

Dr.  Bownd's  Sabathum  Veteris  et  Novi  Testament!  is  ex 
ceedingly  rare.  There  is  a  copy  in  the  Prince  Collection  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library.  It  is  the  only  one  in  this  country,  so  far 
as  I  can  learn.  I  am  under  obligations  in  several  matters  to  Cox's 
Literature  of  the  Sabbath  Question,  to  the  same  author's  Sabbath 
Laws  and  Sabbath  Duties,  and  to  Hessey's  Bampton  Lectures 
for  1860. 

It  is  Thomas  Rogers,  the  earliest  opponent  of  the  doctrine  of 
Greenham  and  Bownd,  who  sees  a  deep-laid  plot  in  the  publica 
tion  of  their  books.  "  What  the  brethren  wanted  in  strength 
they  had  in  wiliness,"  he  says.  "For  while  these  worthies  of 
our  church  were  employing  their  engines  and  forces  partly  in  de 
fending  the  present  government  ecclesiastical,  partly  in  assaulting 
the  presbytery  and  new  discipline,  even  at  that  very  instant  the 
brethren  .  .  .  abandoned  quite  the"  bulwarks  which  they  had 
raised  and  gave  out  were  impregnable  :  suffering  us  to  beat  them 
down,  without  any  or  very  small  resistance,  and  yet  not  careless 
of  affairs,  left  not  the  wars  for  all  that,  but  from  an  odd  corner, 
and  after  a  new  fashion  which  we  little  thought  of  (such  was 
their  cunning),  set  upon  us  afresh  again  by  dispersing  in  printed 
books  (which  for  ten  years'  space  before  they  had  been  in  ham 
mering  among  themselves  to  make  them  complete)  their  Sabbath 
speculations  and  presbyterian  (that  is  more  than  kingly  or 
popely)  directions  for  the  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day."  Pref 
ace  to  Thirty-nine  Articles,  paragraph  20.  He  also  says,  with 
some  wit,  "  They  set  up  a  new  idol,  their  Saint  Sabbath." 

The  doctrine  of  a  strict  Sabbath  appears  to  have  made  no 
impression  in  Scotland  until  the  seventeenth  century  was  well 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  10, 
page  129. 


Note  u, 
page  131. 


Note  12, 
page  132. 


140 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


advanced.  In  the  printed  Burgh  Records  of  Aberdeen  from 
1570  to  1625  there  is  no  Sabbatarian  legislation  in  the  proper 
sense ;  but  there  are  efforts  to  compel  the  people  to  suspend 
buying  and  selling  fish  and  flesh  in  the  market,  the  playing  of 
outdoor  games  and  ninepins,  and  the  selling  of  liquors  during 
sermon  time  only.  Take  as  an  example  the  following  ordinance 
— as  curious  for  its  language  as  its  subject— dated  4th  October, 
1 598,  twenty-four  years  after  Knox's  death  : 

"  Item,  The  prouest,  bailleis,  and  counsall  ratefeis  and  ap 
proves  the  statute  maid  obefoir,  bering  that  na  mercatt,  nather  of 
fische  nor  flesche  salbe  on  the  Sabboth  day  in  tyine  cumming,  in 
tyme  of  sermone,  vnder  the  pane  of  confiscatioun  of  the  same ; 
and  lykvayes  ratefeis  the  statute  maid  aganis  the  playeris  in  the 
linkis,  and  at  the  kyillis,  during  the  time  of  the  sermones ;  .  .  . 
and  that  na  tavernar  sell  nor  went  any  wyne  nor  aill  in  tyme 
cumming  in  tyme  of  sermone,  ather  on  the  Sabboth  day  or  vlk 
dayes,  under  the  pane  of  ane  vnlaw  of  fourtie  s.,  to  be  vpliftit  of 
the  contravenar  als  oft  as  they  be  convict." 

New  England  Puritanism  took  a  position  more  ultra  even 
than  that  of  Bownd.  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  Mass., 
developed  from  some  Sermons  on  the  Subject  a  work  with  the 
title,  Theses  Sabbaticae,  or  the  Doctrine  of  the  Sabbath.  After 
a  considerable  circulation  in  manuscript  among  New  England 
students  of  divinity,  it  was  printed  at  London  in  1650  by  request 
of  all  the  elders  of  New  England.  From  the  time  of  Augustine 
the  prevailing  theory  of  advocates  of  a  Sunday-Sabbath  has  been 
that  the  fourth  commandment  is  partly  moral,  partly  ceremonial ; 
but  Shepard,  who  does  not  stick  at  small  logical  or  historical  diffi 
culties,  will  have  it  wholly  moral,  by  which  means  he  avoids  any 
option  regarding  the  day.  The  rest  of  the  Sabbath,  according  to 
this  authoritative  New  England  treatise,  is  to  be  as  strict  as  it 
ever  was  under  Jewish  law,  and  is  to  be  rigidly  enforced  on  the 
unwilling  by  parents  and  magistrates.  In  the  spirit  of  a  thorough 
paced  literalist  Shepard  argues  through  fifty  pages  that  the  Sab 
bath  begins  in  the  evening.  He  admits  that  only  "  servile  labour  " 
is  forbidden,  but  he  reasons  that  as  "  sports  and  pastimes"  are 
ordained  "  to  whet  on  worldly  labour,"  they  therefore  partake  of 
its  servile  character  and  are  not  tolerable  on  the  Sabbath.  It 
appears  from  his  preface  that  there  were  Puritans  in  his  time  who 
denied  the  sabbatical  character  of  Sunday  and  spiritualized  the 
commandment. 


CHAPTER   THE   SECOND. 
SEPARATISM  AND    THE   SCROOBY  CHURCH. 

I. 

To  the  great  brotherhood  of  Puritans  who 
formed  a  party  within  the  church  there  was 
added  a  little  fringe  of  Separatists  or  "  Brownists," 
as  they  were  commonly  called,  who  did  not  stop 
with  rejecting  certain  traits  of  the  Anglican  serv 
ice,  but  spurned  the  church  itself.  Upon  these 
ultraists  fell  the  merciless  hand  of  persecution. 
They  were  imprisoned,  hanged,  exiled.  They  were 
mostly  humble  people,  and  were  never  numerous ; 
but  by  their  superior  boldness  in  speech  and  writ 
ing,  by  their  attempts  to  realize  actual  church 
organizations  on  apostolic  models,  they  rendered 
themselves  considerable  if  not  formidable.  From 
this  advance  guard  and  forlorn  hope  of  Puritanism, 
inured  to  hardship  and  the  battle  front,  came  at 
length  the  little  band  of  New  England  pioneers 
who  made  a  way  into  the  wilderness  over  the 
dead  bodies  of  half  their  company.  The  example 
of  these  contemned  Brownists  led  to  the  Puritan 
settlement  of  New  England.  Their  type  of  eccle 
siastical  organization  ultimately  dominated  the 
Congregationalism  of  New  England  and  the  non 
conformity  of  the  mother  country.  For  these 

141 


CHAP.  II. 

Impor 
tance  of 
the  Sepa 
ratists. 


142 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


reasons,  if  for  no  other,  Brownism,  however  ob 
scure  it  may  have  been,  is  not  a  negligible  element 
in  history. 

II. 

The  great  body  of  the  Puritans  seem  to  have 
agreed  with  Bishop  Hall  that  it  was  "  better  to 
swallow  a  ceremony  than  to  rend  a  church,"  and 
they  agreed  with  him  in  regarding  Separatism  as 
criminal.  They  were,  indeed,  too  intent  on  reform 
ing  the  Church  of  England  to  think  of  leaving  it. 
They  made  no  scruple  of  defying  ecclesiastical 
regulations  when  they  could,  but  in  the  moral 
code  of  that  day  schism  was  the  deadliest  of  sins. 

In  the  early  part  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  before 
the  beginning  of  the  rule  of  Whitgift  and  the  High 
Commission  Courts,  Puritan  divines  slighted  or 
omitted  the  liturgy  in  many  parishes.  This  be 
came  more  common  after  the  rise  of  Cartwright 
and  the  Presbyterian  movement,  about  1570.  For 
example,  in  the  town  of  Overston,  in  1573,  there 
was  no  divine  service  according  to  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  "but  insteade  thereof  two  ser 
mons  be  preached  "  by  men  whom  the  bishop  had 
refused  to  license.  The  village  of  Whiston  was 
also  a  place  of  Puritan  assemblage,  "  where  it  is 
their  joye,"  writes  the  Bishop  of  Peterborough, 
"  to  have  manie  owte  of  divers  parishes,  principal- 
lie  owte  of  Northampton  towne  and  Overston 
aforesaid,  with  other  townes  thereaboute,  there  to 
receive  the  sacramentes  with  preachers  and  min- 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


143 


isters  to  their  owne  liking-,  and  contrarie  to  the 
forme  prescribed  by  the  publique  order  of  the 
realme."  Thomas  Rogers  says,  "  The  brethren 
(for  so  did  they  style  them-selves)  would  neither 
pray,  nor  say  service,  nor  baptize,  nor  celebrate 
the  Lord's  Supper,  nor  marry,  nor  bury,  nor  do 
any  other  ecclesiastical  duty  according  to  law." 

At  this  time  some  of  the  Puritan  divines  held 
high  positions  in  the  church.  Whittingham,  who 
had  been  on  the  Puritan  side  of  the  quarrels  in 
Frankfort,  and  who  had  received  only  a  Genevan 
ordination,  succeeded  in  holding1  his  deanery  of 
Durham  until  his  death,  in  1579.  ^n  J5^3  Dr.  Tur 
ner  was  sneering  at  bishops  as  "  white  coats  "  and 
"tippett  gentlemen,"  while  himself  Dean  of  Dur 
ham. 

But  Elizabeth  after  a  while  filled  the  bishoprics 
with  men  to  her  liking,  whose  heavy  hands  made 
the  lot  of  Puritans  in  the  church  harder  and 
harder.  Many  ministers  were  silenced,  but  there 
were  many  who,  by  evasion  or  by  straining  their 
consciences,  held  their  benefices.  Some  Puritan 
clergymen,  when  they  were  to  preach,  preferred 
"to  walk  in  the  church-yard  until  sermon  time 
rather  than  to  be  present  at  public  prayer."  Some 
Puritan  laymen  had  their  own  way  of  conforming 
to  the  church.  "  There  is  a  sort  of  Semi  Separa 
tist,"  says  Pagitt,  as  late  as  1646,  "that  will  heare 
our  Sermons  but  not  our  Common-prayers;  and 
of  these  you  may  see  every  Sunday  in  our  streets 
sitting  and  standing  about  our  doores ;  who,  when 


CHAP.  II. 


Rogers's 
Preface  to 
Articles. 
Parker 
Soc.  ed., 
p.  10. 


The  Semi- 
Separa 
tists. 


Bancroft  in 
Barlowe's 
Svmme 
and  Svb- 
stance. 


Heresiog- 
raphy,  p. 
82. 


144 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Causes  of 
Separa- 


Thomas 
Scott  in 
Pagitt,  80. 


Prayers  are  done,  rush  into  our  Churches  to  hear 
our  Sermons." 

III. 

The  growth  of  Separatist  churches  was  due  to 
two  causes.  An  almost  incredible  reverence  for 
the  letter  of  the  Scriptures  had  taken  the  place  of 
older  superstitions.  There  was  a  strong  tendency 
to  revert  to  the  stern  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  to  adopt  the  external  forms  of  the  New.  Re 
ligious  idealists  saw  a  striking  contrast  between  the 
discipline  of  the  primitive  and  almost  isolated  bands 
of  enthusiastic  believers  in  the  apostolic  time  and 
the  all-inclusive  parishes  of  the  hierarchical  state 
church.  And  in  that  age  of  externalism  the  differ 
ence  in  organic  form  between  the  Anglican  church 
and  the  little  synagogues  of  Christian  seceders 
founded  by  Paul  in  the  Levant  weighed  heavily 
upon  the  minds  of  earnest  people.  It  did  not  oc 
cur  to  them  that  this  primitive  organization  was 
probably  brought  over  from  the  neighboring  Jew 
ish  congregations  from  which  the  converts  had 
withdrawn,  and  that  there  might  not  be  any  obli 
gation  to  imitate  it  under  different  skies  and  in  a 
remote  age.  The  Separatist  was  an  idealist.  "  He 
lives  by  the  aire,"  said  an  opponent,  "  and  there  he 
builds  Castles  and  Churches;  none  on  earth  will 
please  him ;  ...  he  must  finde  out  Sir  Thomas 
More's  Utopia,  or  rather  Plato's  Community,  and 
bee  an  Elder  there."  But  Separatism  was  un 
doubtedly  promoted  by  persecution.  Bradford 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


145 


says  that  the  sufferings  inflicted  on  them  by  the 
bishops  helped  some  of  the  Puritans  "  to  see  fur 
ther  into  things  by  the  light  of  the  word  of  God. 
How  not  only  these  base  and  beggerly  ceremonies 
were  unlawful!,  but  also  that  the  lordly  and  tiran- 
ous  power  of  the  prelats  ought  not  to  be  sub 
mitted  unto."  Drawn  thus  by  the  letter  of  the 
biblical  record,  while  stung  by  cruel  oppression 
and  galled  by  the  opposition  of  the  constituted 
authorities  to  what  they  deemed  the  truth  divine, 
it  is  not  strange  that  religious  enthusiasts  began  to 
long  for  societies  organized  like  those  of  the  apos 
tolic  age,  from  which  the  profane  should  be  ex 
cluded  by  a  strict  discipline. 

IV. 

The  beginning  of  Separatism  has  been  com 
monly  attributed  to  Robert  Browne,  a  contentious 
and  able  advocate  of  Separatist  doctrines.  After  a 
brief  and  erratic  career  as  an  advocate  of  these 
opinions,  and  after  suffering  the  penalty  of  his  zeal 
and  proving  the  sincerity  of  his  belief  in  thirty-two 
different  prisons,  in  some  of  which  he  could  not  see 
his  hand  at  noonday,  Browne  at  length  began  to 
waver — now  inclined  to  return  to  the  church,  now 
recoiling  toward  dissent.  Worn  out  in  nerves  by 
controversy  and  persecution,  this  eccentric  man 
was  so  alarmed  by  a  solemn  sentence  of  excommu 
nication  from  a  bishop,  that  he  repented  and  made 
peace  with  the  English  church.  He  accepted  a 

benefice,  but  employed  a  curate  to  preach  for  him. 
ii 


CHAP.  II. 


Plimoth 
Plantation, 
p.  8. 


Robert 
Browne 
and 

Brown- 
ism. 


1581  to 
1586. 


146 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Note  i. 


Rise  of 
Separa 
tism. 

Barclay's 
Inner  Life, 
PP-  13,  53- 

Dialogue 
of  iS93 
quo.  by 
Wadding- 
ton. 

Bradford's 
Dialogue. 

Note  2. 


Josias 
Nichols, 
The  Plea 
for  the 
Innocent, 
1602,  in 
Hanbury, 


Browne  lingered  on  to  an  unhonored  age,  imperi 
ous  and  contentious,  not  able  to  live  with  his  wife, 
and  held  in  no  reverence  by  churchmen,  while  he 
was  despised  by  Separatists.  He  died  at  eighty,  in 
Northampton  jail,  to  which  he  had  been  carried  on 
a  feather  bed  laid  in  a  cart.  The  old  man  had  been 
committed  to  prison  this  thirty-third  time  in  his 
life  for  striking  a  constable  who  sought  to  collect 
a  rate. 

Separatism  in  some  form  existed  before  Browne's 
zeal  made  it  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  bishops. 
Something  like  a  separation  existed  in  1567.  In 
1571  there  was  an  independent  church  of  which  we 
know  little  but  the  pastor's  name.  Bradford  even 
dates  independency  back  to  the  reign  of  Mary.  In 
truth,  the  rise  of  this  sect,  from  which  came  the 
earliest  New  England  colony,  appears  to  be  lost 
in  obscurity.  Significant  movements  are  usually 
cradled  in  rustic  mangers,  to  which  no  learned 
magi  think  it  worth  their  while  to  journey.  The 
beginning  of  Separatism  was  probably  in  the  little 
conventicles  held  by  devout  Puritans  who,  in  the 
words  of  one  of  their  own  writers,  "  met  together 
to  sing  a  psalm  or  to  talk  of  God's  word."  But 
Browne,  so  far  as  we  know,  was  one  of  the  earliest 
to  organize  independent  churches,  with  officers 
named  and  classified  after  those  of  the  petty  hier 
archies  of  the  early  Christian  congregations,  or 
rather  according  to  such  deductions  regarding 
them  as  he  was  able  to  make  from  the  Epistles  of 
Paul.  Separatism,  though  it  owed  something  to 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


147 


Browne's  activity,  was  not  founded  by  him. 
Browne's  labors  began  about  1581,  and  his  fiery 
career  as  a  Brownist  had  lasted  only  four  or  five 
years  when  he  began  to  vacillate.  A  great  part 
of  this  time  was  spent  in  exile,  much  of  it  in 
prison,  and  very  little  of  it  about  London.  But 
before  1587  London  seems  to  have  been  the 
center  of  the  Separatists,  from  which  they  had 
"  sparsed  their  companies  into  severall  partes  of 
the  Realme." 

It  seems  that  their  rise  in  London  came  from 
the  devout  meetings  of  those  who  had  begun  to 
repudiate  the  Church  of  England  as  antichristian. 
Without  any  officers  or  organization  apparently, 
these  people,  when  we  first  get  sight  of  them,  were 
wont  to  assemble  in  the  summer  time  in  the  fields 
about  London,  sitting  down  upon  a  bank  while  the 
Bible  was  expounded  now  by  one  and  now  by  an 
other  of  the  company.  In  the  winter  it  was  their 
custom  to  spend  the  whole  Sunday  together  from 
five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  eating  dinner  in  com 
pany  and  paying  for  it  by  a  collection.  They 
responded  in  prayer  only  by  spontaneous  groans 
or  sobs,  much  after  the  fashion  of  the  early  Qua 
kers,  Methodists,  and  other  enthusiasts  of  a  later 
time.  If  one  of  their  members  returned  to  a  parish 
assembly,  they  pronounced  him  an  apostate  and 
solemnly  delivered  him  over  to  Satan  until  he 
should  repent. 


CHAP.  II. 


Stephen 
Breadwell, 
1588,  in 
Dexter, 

255- 


H.  M.  Dex- 
ter's  Con 
gregation 
alism,  255- 
257. 


148 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


When  they  began  to  organize  themselves  for 
mally  into  a  church  the  London  Separatists  in  their 
turn  resorted  to  the  apostolic  epistles.  These  had 
already  been  treated  like  the  magician's  bottle  that 
is  made  to  yield  white  wine  or  red  at  pleasure. 
From  them  whatsoever  form  of  discipline  was  de 
sired  by  Anglican,  Presbyterian,  or  Brownist  had 
been  derived,  and  now  a  still  different  discipline 
was  deduced,  a  mean  betwixt  Presbyterian  and 
Brownist  theories.  This  is  known  now  as  Bar- 
rowism.  It  was  the  form  of  church  government 
brought  by  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth,  and  sub 
stantially  that  which  prevailed  in  New  England 
throughout  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  London  Separatists  suffered  miserably  from 
persecution.  Many  of  them  languished  and  died 
in  prison.  Barrow  and  Greenwood,  their  leaders, 
were  hanged  at  Tyburn.  A  part  of  them  migrated 
to  Amsterdam,  while  the  rest  maintained  a  furtive 
church  in  London.  Those  in  Amsterdam,  having 
no  lingering  abuses  of  the  English  church  to  re 
form,  set  every  man's  conscience  to  watch  his 
neighbor's  conduct.  Having  seceded  from  the 
communion  of  the  Church  of  England  on  account 
of  scandals,  they  were  scandalized  with  the  least 
variation  from  their  rigorous  standard  by  any  of 
their  own  church  members,  and  they  were  soon 
torn  asunder  with  dissensions  as  the  result  of  this 
vicariousness  of  conscience.  The  innocent  vanity 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


149 


of  the  pastor's  wife  who  could  never  forego  a 
"  toppish  "  hat  and  high-heeled  shoes  was  the  prin 
cipal  stumbling-block. 

Though  Separatism  had  been  almost  extirpated 
from  England  by  the  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
there  remained  even  yet  one  vigorous  society  in 
the  north  which  was  destined  to  exert  a  remark 
able  influence  on  the  course  of  history. 

VI. 

On  the  southern  margin  of  Yorkshire  the 
traveler  alights  to-day  at  the  station  of  Bawtry. 
It  is  an  uninteresting  village,  with  a  rustic  inn. 
More  than  a  mile  to  the  southward,  in  Nottingham 
shire,  lies  the  pleasant  but  commonplace  village  of 
Scrooby.  About  a  mile  to  the  north  of  Bawtry  is 
Austerfield,  a  hamlet  of  brick  cottages  crowded  to 
gether  along  the  road.  It  has  a  picturesque  little 
church  built  in  the  middle  ages,  the  walls  of  which 
are  three  feet  thick.  This  church  will  seat  some 
thing  more  than  a  hundred  people  nowadays  by 
the  aid  of  a  rather  modern  extension.  In  the  sev 
enteenth  century  it  was  smaller,  and  there  was  no 
ceiling.  Then  one  could  see  the  rafters  of  the 
roof  while  shuddering  with  cold  in  the  grottolike 
interior.  The  country  around  is  level  and  un- 
picturesque. 

But  one  is  here  in  the  cradle  of  great  religious 
movements.  In  Scrooby  and  in  Austerfield  were 
born  the  Pilgrims  who  made  the  first  successful 
settlement  in  New  England.  A  little  to  the  east 


CHAP.  II. 


The  cradle 
of  the  Pil 
grims. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


lies  Gainsborough,  from  which  migrated  to  Hol 
land  in  1606  the  saintly  Separatist  John  Smyth,  who 
gave  form  to  a  great  Baptist  movement  of  modern 
times.  A  few  miles  to  the  northeast  of  Bawtry,  in 
Lincolnshire,  lies  Epworth,  the  nest  from  which  the 
Wesleys  issued  more  than  a  hundred  years  later  to 
spread  Methodism  over  the  world.  Religious  zeal 
seems  to  have  characterized  the  people  of  this 
region  even  before  the  Reformation,  for  the  country 
round  about  Scrooby  was  occupied  at  that  time  by 
an  unusual  number  of  religious  houses. 

The  little  Austerfield  church  and  the  old  church 
at  Scrooby  are  the  only  picturesque  or  romantic 
elements  of  the  environment,  and  on  these  churches 
the  Pilgrims  turned  their  backs  as  though  they  had 
been  temples  of  Baal.  In  the  single  street  of  Aus 
terfield  the  traveler  meets  the  cottagers  of  to-day, 
and  essays  to  talk  with  them.  They  are  heavy  and 
somewhat  stolid,  like  most  other  rustic  people  in 
the  north  country,  and  an  accent  to  which  their 
ears  are  not  accustomed  amuses  and  puzzles  them. 
No  tradition  of  the  Pilgrims  lingers  among  them. 
They  have  never  heard  that  anybody  ever  went 
out  of  Austerfield  to  do  anything  historical.  They 
listen  with  a  bovine  surprise  if  you  speak  to  them 
of  this  exodus,  and  they  refer  you  to  the  old  clerk 
of  the  parish,  who  will  know  about  it.  The  vener 
able  clerk  is  a  striking  figure,  not  unlike  that  parish 
clerk  painted  by  Gainsborough.  This  oracle  of 
the  hamlet  knows  that  Americans  come  here  as  on 
a  pilgrimage,  and  he  tells  you  that  one  of  them,  a 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


descendant  of  Governor  Bradford,  offered  a  con 
siderable  sum  for  the  disused  stone  font  at  which 
Bradford  the  Pilgrim  was  baptized.  But  the 
traveler  turns  away  at  length  from  the  rustic  folk 
of  Austerfield  and  the  beer-drinkers  over  their 
mugs  in  the  inn  at  Bawtry,  and  the  villagers  at 
Scrooby,  benumbed  by  that  sense  of  utter  common- 
placeness  which  is  left  on  the  mind  of  a  stranger 
by  such  an  agricultural  community.  The  Pilgrims, 
then,  concerning  whom  poems  have  been  written, 
and  in  whose  honor  orations  without  number  have 
been  made,  were  just  common  country  folk  like  these, 
trudging  through  wheat  fields  and  along  the  muddy 
clay  highways  of  the  days  of  Elizabeth  and  James. 
They  were  just  such  men  as  these  and  they  were 
not.  They  were  such  as  these  would  be  if  they 
were  vivified  by  enthusiasm.  We  may  laugh  at 
superfluous  scruples  in  rustic  minds,  but  none  will 
smile  at  brave  and  stubborn  loyalty  to  an  idea 
when  it  produces  such  steadfast  courage  as  that 
of  the  Pilgrims. 

And  yet,  when  the  traveler  has  resumed  his 
journey,  and  recalls  Scrooby  and  Bawtry  and  Aus 
terfield,  the  stolid  men  and  gossiping  women,  the 
narrow  pursuits  of  the  plowman  and  the  reaper, 
and  remembers  the  flat,  naked,  and  depressing 
landscape,  he  is  beset  by  the  old  skepticism  about 
the  coming  of  anything  good  out  of  Nazareth. 
Nor  is  he  helped  by  remembering  that  at  the  time 
of  Bradford's  christening  at  the  old  stone  font  the 
inhabitants  of  Austerfield  are  said  to  have  been  "  a 


CHAP.  II. 


152 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 

Magnalia, 
Book  II, 
chap,  i, 
p.  2. 


Elder 
Brewster. 


Itinerary, 
i,  36,  in 
Hunter's 
Founders, 
p.  20. 


most  ignorant  and  licentious  people,"  and  that 
earlier  in  that  same  century  John  Leland  speaks  of 
"  the  meane  townlet  of  Scrooby." 

VIII. 

But  Leland's  description  of  the  village  sug 
gests  the  influence  that  caused  Scrooby  and  the 
wheat  fields  thereabout  to  send  forth,  in  the  be 
ginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  and  of  a  new 
reign,  men  capable  of  courage  and  fortitude  suffi 
cient  to  make  them  memorable,  and  to  make  these 
three  townlets  places  of  pilgrimage  in  following 
centuries. 

"  In  the  meane  townlet  of  Scrooby,  I  marked 
two  things  " — it  is  Leland  who  writes — "  the  parish 
church  not  big  but  very  well  builded  ;  the  second 
was  a  great  manor-place, 'standing  within  a  moat, 
and  longing  to  the  Archbishop  of  York."  This 
large  old  manor-place  he  describes  with  its  outer 
and  inner  court.  In  this  manor-place,  about  half  a 
century  after  Leland  saw  it,  there  lived  William 
Brewster.  He  was  a  man  of  education,  who  had 
been  for  a  short  time  in  residence  at  Cambridge ; 
he  had  served  as  one  of  the  under  secretaries  of 
state  for  years ;  had  been  trusted  beyond  all  others 
by  Secretary  Davison,  his  patron  ;  and,  when  Eliza 
beth  disgraced  Davison,  in  order  to  avoid  respon 
sibility  for  the  death  of  Mary  of  Scotland,  Brewster 
had  been  the  one  friend  who  clung  to  the  fallen 
secretary  as  long  as  there  was  opportunity  to  do 
him  service.  Making  no  further  effort  to  establish 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


153 


himself  at  court,  Brewster  went  after  a  while  "  to 
live  in  the  country  in  good  esteeme  amongst  his 
freinds  and  the  good  gentle-men  of  those  parts, 
espetially  the  godly  and  religious."  His  abode 
after  his  retirement  was  the  old  manor-place  now 
destroyed,  but  then  the  most  conspicuous  building 
at  Scrooby.  It  belonged  in  his  time  to  Sir  Samuel 
Sandys,  the  elder  brother  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 
whose  work  as  the  master  spirit  in  the  later  his 
tory  of  the  Virginia  Company  has  already  been 
recounted.  At  Scrooby  Brewster  succeeded  his 
father  in  the  office  of  "  Post,"  an  office  that  obliged 
him  to  receive  and  deliver  letters  for  a  wide 
district  of  country,  to  keep  relays  of  horses  for 
travelers  by  post  on  the  great  route  to  the  north, 
and  to  furnish  inn  accommodations.  In  the  master 
of  the  post  at  Scrooby  we  have  the  first  of  those 
influences  that  lifted  a  group  of  people  from  this 
rustic  region  into  historic  importance.  He  had 
been  acquainted  with  the  great  world,  and  had 
borne  a  responsible  if  not  a  conspicuous  part  in 
delicate  diplomatic  affairs  in  the  Netherlands.  At 
court,  as  at  Scrooby,  he  was  a  Puritan,  and  now  in 
his  retirement  his  energies  were  devoted  to  the 
promotion  of  religion.  He  secured  earnest  minis 
ters  for  many  of  the  neighboring  parishes.  But 
that  which  he  builded  the  authorities  tore  down. 
Whitgift  was  archbishop,  and  the  High  Commis 
sion  Courts  were  proceeding  against  Puritans  with 
the  energy  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition.  "  The 
godly  preachers "  about  him  were  silenced.  The 


CHAP.  II. 

Bradford, 
410. 


Book  I, 
chap,  ii,  iii. 


154 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Plimoth 
Planta 
tions,  411. 


The 

Scrooby 

Church. 


Magnalia, 
Book  II, 
c.  i,  2. 


people  who  followed  them  were  proscribed,  and 
all  the  pains  and  expense  of  Brewster  and  his 
Puritan  friends  in  establishing  religion  as  they 
understood  it  were  likely  to  be  rendered  futile  by 
the  governors  of  the  church.  "  He  and  many 
more  of  those  times  begane  to  looke  further  into 
things,"  says  Bradford.  Persecution  begot  Sepa 
ratism.  The  theory  was  the  result  of  conditions, 
as  new  theories  are  wont  to  be. 

IX. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  secession  appears  to 
have  begun  with  meetings  for  devotion.  By  this 
supposition  we  may  reconcile  two  dates  which 
have  been  supposed  to  conflict,  conjecturing  that 
in  1602,  when  Brewster  had  lived  about  fifteen 
years  in  the  old  manor-house,  his  neighbors,  who 
did  not  care  to  attend  the  ministry  of  ignorant  and 
licentious  priests,  began  to  spend  whole  Sundays 
together,  now  in  one  place  and  now  in  another, 
but  most  frequently  in  the  old  manor-house 
builded  within  a  moat,  and  reached  by  ascending 
a  flight  of  stone  steps.  Here,  Brewster's  hospi 
tality  was  dispensed  to  them  freely.  They  may 
or  may  not  have  been  members  of  the  Separatist 
church  at  Gainsborough,  as  some  have  supposed. 
It  was  not  until  1606  that  these  people  formed 
the  fully  organized  Separatist  church  of  Scrooby. 
It  was  organized  after  the  Barrowist  pattern 
that  had  originated  in  London — it  was  after  a 
divine  pattern,  according  to  their  belief.  Brew- 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Church. 


155 


ster,  the  nucleus  of  the  church,  became  their  ruling 
elder. 

It  was  in  these  all-day  meetings  at  the  old 
manor-house  that  the  Separatist  rustics  of  Scrooby 
were  molded  for  suffering  and  endeavor.  The 
humble,  modest,  and  conscientious  Brewster  was 
the  king-post  of  the  new  church — the  first  and 
longest  enduring  of  the  influences  that  shaped  the 
character  of  these  people  in  England,  Holland,  and 
America.  Brewster  could  probably  have  returned 
to  the  court  under  other  auspices  after  Davison's 
fall,  but  as  master  of  the  post  at  Scrooby,  then  as 
a  teacher  and  as  founder  of  a  printing  office  of 
prohibited  English  books  in  Leyden,  and  finally  as 
a  settler  in  the  wilderness,  inuring  his  soft  hands 
to  rude  toils,  until  he  died  in  his  cabin  an  octogena 
rian,  he  led  a  life  strangely  different  from  that  of  a 
courtier.  But  no  career  possible  to  him  at  court 
could  have  been  so  useful  or  so  long  remembered. 

x. 

But  Brewster  was  not  the  master  spirit.  About 
the  time  the  Separatists  of  Scrooby  completed 
their  church  organization,  in  1606,  there  came  to 
it  John  Robinson.  He  had  been  a  fellow  of  Em 
manuel  College,  Cambridge,  and  a  beneficed  cler 
gyman  of  Puritan  views.  He,  too,  had  been  slowly 
propelled  to  Separatist  opinion  by  persecution. 
For  fourteen  years  before  the  final  migration  he 
led  the  Pilgrims  at  Scrooby  and  Leyden.  Wise 
man  of  affairs,  he  directed  his  people  even  in  their 


CHAP.  II. 


The  ruling 
elder. 


Bradford's 
Plimoth 
Plantation, 
408-414. 
Hunter's 
Founders, 
passim. 
Winsor's 
Elder 
William 
Brewster,  a 
pamphlet. 
F.  B.  Dex 
ter  in 
Narrative 
and  Crit. 
Hist.,  iii, 
257-282. 


John  Rob 
inson. 


1 56 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


hard  struggle  for  bread  in  a  foreign  country. 
He  was  one  of  the  few  men,  in  that  age  of  debate 
about  husks  and  shells,  who  penetrated  to  those 
teachings  concerning  character  and  conduct  which 
are  the  vital  and  imperishable  elements  of  religion. 
Even  when  assailed  most  roughly  in  debate  he 
was  magnanimous  and  forbearing.  He  avoided 
the  bigotry  and  bitterness  of  the  early  Brownists, 
and  outgrew  as  years  went  on  the  narrowness  of 
rigid  Separatism.  He  lived  on  the  best  terms  with 
the  Dutch  and  French  churches.  He  opposed 
rather  the  substantial  abuses  than  the  ceremonies 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  as  life  advanced 
he  came  to  extend  a  hearty  fellowship  and  com 
munion  to  good  men  in  that  church.  Had  it  been 
his  lot  to  remain  in  the  national  church  and  rise, 
as  did  his  opponent,  Joseph  Hall,  to  the  pedestal 
of  a  bishopric  or  to  other  dignity,  he  would  have 
been  one  of  the  most  illustrious  divines  of  the  age 
—wanting  something  of  the  statesmanly  breadth 
of  Hooker,  but  quite  outspreading  and  overtop 
ping  the  Whitgifts,  Bancrofts,  and  perhaps  even 
the  Halls.  Robert  Baillie,  who  could  say  many 
hard  things  against  Separatists,  is  forced  to  confess 
that  "  Robinson  was  a  man  of  excellent  parts,  and 
the  most  learned,  polished,  and  modest  spirit  that 
ever  separated  from  the  Church  of  England  "  ;  and 
long  after  his  death  the  Dutch  theologian  Horn- 
beeck  recalls  again  and  again  his  integrity,  learn 
ing,  and  modesty. 

Shall  we  say  that  when  subjected  to  this  great 


Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  Cliurch. 


57 


man's  influence  the  rustics  of  Scrooby  and  Bawtry 
and  Austerfield  were  clowns  no  longer?  Perhaps 
we  shall  be  truer  to  the  probabilities  of  human 
nature  if  we  conclude  that  Robinson  was  able  to 
mold  a  few  of  the  best  of  them  to  great  uses,  and 
that  these  became  the  significant  digits  which  gave 
value  to  the  ciphers. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

The  eccentricities,  moral  and  mental,  of  Browne  were  a  con 
stant  resource  of  those  who  sought  to  involve  all  Separatists  in 
his  disgrace.  Odium  has  always  been  a  more  effective  weapon 
than  argument  in  a  theological  controversy.  Browne's  enemies 
alleged  that  even  while  on  the  gridiron  of  persecution  his  conduct 
had  not  been  free  from  moral  obliquity.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
see  Bernard's  charges  on  this  score,  but  John  Robinson,  in  his 
Justification,  etc.  (1610),  parries  the  thrust  in  these  words  :  "  Now 
as  touching  Browne,  it  is  true  as  Mr.  B[ernard]  affirmeth,  that  as 
he  forsook  the  Lord  so  the  Lord  forsook  him  in  his  way ;  ...  as 
for  the  wicked  things  (which  Mr.  B.  affirmeth)  he  did  in  the  way 
it  may  well  be  as  he  sayeth,  ...  as  the  more  like  he  was  to  re- 
turne  to  his  proper  centre  the  Church  of  England,  where  he 
should  be  sure  to  find  companie  ynough  in  any  wickednesse." 
Edition  of  1639,  p.  50.  One  of  the  most  learned  accounts  of 
Browne  is  to  be  found  in  H.  M.  Dexter's  Congregationalism,  the 
lecture  on  Robert  Browne.  It  is  always  easy  to  admire  Dr. 
Dexter's  erudition,  but  not  so  easy  to  assent  to  his  conclusions. 
See  also  Pagitt's  Heresiography,  p.  56  and  passim  ;  Fuller's 
Church  History,  ix,  vi,  1-7  ;  and  Hanbury's  Memorials,  p.  18  and 
following. 

John  Robinson,  in  Justification  of  Separation  from  the  Church 
of  England,  p.  50,  edition  of  1639,  says  :  "  It  is  true  that  Boulton 
was  (though  not  the  first  in  that  way)  an  elder  of  a  Separatist 
church  in  the  beginning  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  dayes,  and  falling 
from  his  holy  profession  recanted  the  same  at  Paul's  Crosse  and 
afterwards  hung  himself  as  Judas,  did."  Compare  Cotton's  The 
Way  of  the  Congregationall  Churches  Cleared,  p.  4,  and  various 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  i, 
page  146. 


Note  2, 
page  146. 


158 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  n. 


Note  3, 
page  156. 


intimations  in  Hanbury's  Memorials,  which  imply  the  existence 
of  Independent  congregations  in  London  and  elsewhere  in  the 
early  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign.  But  Hanbury's  handling  of  the 
valuable  material  he  collected  with  commendable  assiduity  is 
sometimes  so  clumsy  that  the  reader  is  obliged  to  grope  for  facts 
bearing  upon  most  important  questions.  One  gets  from  Han 
bury's  notes  and  some  older  publications  a  vague  notion  that  the 
Flemish  Protestants,  recently  settled  in  England  in  great  numbers, 
exerted  an  influence  in  favor  of  Independency.  Robert  Browne 
began  his  secession  in  Norwich,  a  place  where  the  people  from 
the  Low  Countries  were  nearly  half  the  population,  and  Browne 
was  even  said  to  have  labored  among  the  Dutch  first.  Fuller, 
ix,  sec.  vi,  2. 

Robinson's  character  may  be  judged  from  his  works.  His 
good  qualities  are  very  apparent  in  the  wise  and  tender  letters  ad 
dressed  to  the  Pilgrims  when  they  were  leaving  England  and  after 
their  arrival  at  Plymouth,  which  will  be  found  in  Bradford's 
Plimoth  Plantations,  63,  64,  163.  See  Bradford's  character  of  him, 
ibid.,  17-19.  See  also  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims,  473-482. 
Ainsworth's  tribute  is  in  Hanbury's  Memorials,  95.  See  also 
Winslow's  Brief  Narration  in  Young's  Chronicles,  379.  George 
Sumner,  in  3d  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  ix,  has  a 
paper  giving  the  result  of  his  investigations  in  Leyden.  He 
quotes  Hornbeeck  as  saying,  twenty-eight  years  after  Robinson's 
death,  that  he  was  the  best  of  all  the  exiles  as  well  as  the  most 
upright,  learned,  and  most  modest.  Hornbeeck's  words  are  : 
"  Optimus  inter  illos."  "  Vir  supra  reliquos  probus  atque  eru- 
ditus."  "  Doctissimi  ac  modestissimi  omnium  separatistorum." 


CHAPTER   THE   THIRD. 
THE  PILGRIM  MIGRATIONS. 


I. 

THE  accession  of  James  of  Scotland  to  the 
English  throne  in  1603  raised  the  hopes  of  the 
Puritans.  James  had  said,  in  1590:  "  As  for  our 
neighbour  kirk  of  England,  their  service  is  an  ill- 
said  masse  in  English  ;  they  want  nothing  of  the 
masse  but  the  liftings."  Later,  when  the  prospect 
of  his  accession  to  the  English  throne  was  immi 
nent,  James  had  spoken  with  a  different  voice,  but 
the  Puritans  remembered  his  lifelong  familiarity 
with  Presbyterian  forms,  and  his  strongly  ex 
pressed  satisfaction  with  the  Scottish  Kirk.  They 
met  him  on  his  way  to  London  with  a  peti 
tion  for  modifications  of  the  service.  This  was 
known  as  the  Millinary  Petition,  because  it  was 
supposed  to  represent  the  views  of  about  one  thou 
sand  English  divines. 

In  January,  1604,  the  king  held  a  formal  confer 
ence  at  Hampton  Court  between  eleven  of  the 
Anglican  party  on  one  side,  nine  of  them  being 
bishops,  and  four  Puritan  divines,  representing  the 
petitioners.  Assuming  at  first  the  air  of  playing 
the  arbiter,  James,  who  dearly  loved  a  puttering 
theological  debate,  could  not  refrain  from  taking 

159 


CHAP.  III. 

Accession 
of  James  I. 


Neal,  ii,  28. 
Compare 
Burns's 
Prel.  Diss. 
to  Wod- 
row,  Ixxiv. 


Hampton 
Court  con 
ference. 


i6o 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 

Svmme 
and  Svb- 
stance, 
passim. 


Prel.  Diss. 
to  Wod- 
row,  Ixxiv. 


Ch.  Hist., 
x,  vii,  30. 


the  cause  of  the  churchmen  out  of  their  hands  and 
arguing  it  himself.  The  reports  of  the  conference 
are  most  interesting  as  showing  the  paradoxical 
qualities  of  James,  who,  by  his  action  at  this  meet 
ing,  unwittingly  made  himself  a  conspicuous  fig 
ure  in  the  history  of  America.  The  great  church 
men  were  surprised  at  the  display  made  by  the 
king  of  dialectic  skill.  They  held  Scotch  learning 
in  some  contempt,  and  were  amazed  that  one  bred 
among  the  "  Puritans  "  should  know  how  to  handle 
questions  of  theology  so  aptly.  James,  though 
he  had  declared  the  Church  of  Scotland  "  the 
sincerest  kirk  in  the  world "  because  it  did  not 
keep  Easter  and  Yule  as  the  Genevans  did,  now 
had  the  face  to  assure  the  prelates  that  he  had 
never  believed  after  he  was  ten  years  old  what 
he  was  taught  in  Scotland.  His  speeches  in 
the  conference  are  marked  by  ability,  mingled 
with  the  folly  which  vitiated  all  his  qualities. 
Quick  at  reply  and  keen  in  analysis,  he  even  shows 
something  like  breadth  of  intelligence,  or  at  least 
intellectual  toleration,  but  without  ever  for  a  mo 
ment  evincing  any  liberality  of  feeling.  His  mani 
fest  cleverness  is  rendered  futile  by  his  narrow  and 
ridiculous  egotism,  his  arrogance  in  the  treatment 
of  opponents,  and  his  coarse  vulgarity  in  expres 
sion.  "  In  common  speaking  as  in  his  hunting," 
says  Fuller,  "  he  stood  not  on  the  cleanest  but  near 
est  way."  The  Puritans  were  no  more  able  to 
answer  the  arguments  of  the  king  than  was  ^Esop's 
lamb  to  make  reply  to  the  wolf.  Laying  down  for 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


161 


his  fundamental  maxim  "  No  bishop,  no  king,"  he 
drew  a  picture  of  the  troubles  that  would  beset  him 
when  "  Jack  and  Tom  and  Will  and  Dick  "  should 
meet  and  censure  the  king  and  his  council.  He 
would  have  no  such  assemblage  of  the  clergy  until 
he  should  grow  fat  and  pursy  and  need  trouble  to 
keep  him  in  breath,  he  said.  It  could  not  occur  to 
his  self-centered  mind  that  so  grave  a  question  was 
not  to  be  settled  merely  by  considering  the  ease 
and  convenience  of  the  sovereign.  "  He  rather 
usede  upbraidinges  than  argumente,"  says  Plar- 
rington,  who  was  present.  He  bade  the  Puritans 
"awaie  with  their  snivellinge,"  and,  in  discussing 
the  surplice,  made  an  allusion  that  would  be 
deemed  a  profanation  by  reverent  churchmen  of 
the  present  time. 

With  characteristic  pedantry  he  spoke  part  of 
the  time  in  Latin,  and  his  clever  refutation  of  the 
hapless  Puritans  sounded  like  the  wisdom  of  God 
to  the  anxious  bishops.  In  spite  of  the  downright 
scolding  and  vulgar  abuse  with  which  the  king 
flavored  his  orthodoxy,  the  aged  Whitgift  declared 
that  undoubtedly  his  Majesty  spoke  by  the  special 
assistance  of  God's  Spirit ;  but  one  of  the  worldly 
bystanders  ventured,  in  defiance  of  the  episcopal 
dictum,  to  think  that  whatever  spirit  inspired  the 
king  was  "rather  foul-mouthed."  Bancroft,  Bishop 
of  London,  theatrically  fell  on  his  knees  and  sol 
emnly  protested  that  his  heart  melted  within  him 
with  joy  that  Almighty  God  of  his  singular  mercy 
had  given  them  such  a  king  "  as  since  Christ's 


CHAP.  III. 


Nugaa 
Antique., 
i,  181. 


The  king 
and  the 
bishops. 


I  62 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 
Note  i. 


Compare 
Nugse  An- 
tiquas,  ii, 
25,  26. 


Results. 

Svmme 
and  Svb- 
stance,  35. 


Compare 
Bacon's 
Certain 
Considera 
tions 
touching 
the  better 
Pacifica 
tion  of  the 
Church  of 
England. 


time  the  like  hath  not  been  seen."  The  king 
in  his  turn  was  naturally  impressed  with  the  sa 
gacity  of  a  bishop  who  could  so  devoutly  admire 
his  Majesty's  ability,  and,  when  soon  afterward  a 
fresh  access  of  paralysis  carried  off  Whitgift,  it  was 
not  surprising  that  Bancroft  should  be  translated 
from  London  to  Canterbury  over  the  heads  of 
worthier  competitors.  From  the  moment  of  Ban 
croft's  accession  to  the  primacy  the  lot  of  the  Puri 
tans  and  Separatists  became  harder,  for  he  plumed 
himself  doubtless  on  being  the  originator  of  the 
high-church  doctrine,  and  he  was  a  man  whose 
harsh  energy  seems  not  to  have  been  tempered  by 
an  intimate  piety  like  that  of  Whitgift. 

When  James  rose  from  his  chair  at  the  close  of 
the  debate  on  the  second  day  he  said,  "  I  shall  make 
them  conform  themselves,  or  I  will  harry  them  out 
of  this  land,  or  else  do  worse  " ;  and  he  wrote  to  a 
friend  boasting  that  he  had  "  peppered  the  Puritans 
soundly."  But  the  king  had  missed,  without  know 
ing  it,  the  greatest  opportunity  of  his  reign — an 
opportunity  for  conciliating  or  weakening  the  Puri 
tan  opposition,  and  consolidating  the  church  and 
his  kingdom.  James  could  think  of  nothing  but 
his  own  display  of  cleverness  and  browbeating 
arrogance  in  a  dispute  with  great  divines  like  Rey 
nolds  and  Chaderton.  The  conference  had  been 
for  him  a  recreation  not  much  more  serious  than 
stag-hunting.  That  it  was  pregnant  with  vast  and 
far-reaching  results  for  good  and  evil  in  England 
and  the  New  World  he,  perhaps,  did  not  dream. 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


163 


By  his  narrow  and  selfish  course  at  this  critical 
moment  he  may  be  said  to  have  sealed  the  fate  of 
his  son,  if  not  the  doom  of  his  dynasty ;  and  his 
clever  folly  gave  fresh  life  to  the  bitter  struggle 
between  Anglican  and  Puritan  which  resulted  in 
the  peopling  of  New  England  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  afterward. 

II. 

Every  proscription  of  the  Puritans  within  the 
church  was  accompanied  by  a  crusade  against  the 
Brownists  without,  who  were  counted  sinners 
above  all  other  men.  Though  Ralegh  in  1593  had 
estimated  the  Brownists  at  twenty  thousand,  they 
were  by  this  time  in  consequence  of  oppression 
"about  worn  out,"  as  Bacon  said.  Upon  those 
who  remained  the  new  persecution  broke  with  un- 
tempered  severity.  Badgered  on  every  side  by 
that  vexatious  harrying  which  King  James  and  his 
ecclesiastics  kept  up  according  to  promise,  the  little 
congregation  at  Scrooby  in  1607  resolved  to  flee 
into  Holland,  where  they  would  be  strangers  to 
the  speech  and  to  the  modes  of  getting  a  living, 
but  where  they  might  worship  God  in  extempo 
rary  prayers  under  the  guidance  of  elders  of  their 
own  choice  without  fear  of  fines  and  prisons. 

That  which  is  most  honorable  to  the  Low  Coun 
tries,  from  a  historical  point  of  view,  namely,  that 
their  cities  were  places  of  refuge  for  oppressed 
consciences,  was  esteemed  odious  and  highly  ridic 
ulous  in  the  seventeenth  century.  In  one  of  the 


CHAP.  III. 


The  storm 
of  persecu 
tion. 


Bacon's 
Observa 
tion  on  a 
Libel. 


Toleration 
in  the  Low 
Countries. 


164 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Errours 
and  Indura 
tion,  p.  27. 


Flight  of 
the  Pil 
grims. 


The  Pil 
grims  in 
Amster 
dam. 


plays  of  that  time  there  is  a  humorous  proposition 
to  hold  a  consultation  about  "  erecting  four  new 
sects  of  religion  in  Amsterdam."  The  Dutch  me 
tropolis  was  called  a  cage  of  unclean  birds,  and  a 
French  prelate  contemned  it  as  "  a  common  harbor 
of  all  opinions  and  heresies."  At  a  later  period 
Edward  Johnson,  the  rather  bloodthirsty  Massa 
chusetts  Puritan,  inveighs  against  "  the  great  min 
gle  mangle  of  religion  "  in  Holland,  and  like  a 
burlesque  prophet  shrieks,  "Ye  Dutch,  come  out 
of  your  hodge  podge  !  "  Robert  Baylie,  in  a  ser 
mon  before  the  House  of  Lords  as  late  as  1645, 
says  of  the  toleration  by  the  Dutch,  that  "  for  this 
one  thing  they  have  become  infamous  in  the  Chris 
tian  world." 

To  the  asylum  offered  by  the  Low  Countries 
the  Scrooby  Separatists  resolved  to  flee.  The 
pack  of  harriers  let  loose  by  James  and  Bancroft 
were  in  full  cry.  The  members  of  the  Scrooby 
church  found  themselves  "  hunted  and  persecuted 
on  every  side,"  having  their  houses  watched  night 
and  day,  so  that  all  their  sufferings  in  times  past 
"  were  but  as  flea  bitings  in  comparison."  But  the 
tyranny  that  made  England  intolerable  did  its  best 
to  render  flight  impossible.  In  various  essays  to 
escape,  the  Separatists  were  arrested  and  stripped 
of  what  valuables  they  had,  while  their  leaders 
were  cast  into  prison  for  months  at  a  time. 

At  length  by  one  means  or  another  the  mem 
bers  of  this  battered  little  community  got  away 
and  met  together  in  Amsterdam.  To  plain  north 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


165 


country  folk  this  was  indeed  a  strange  land,  and 
one  can  see  in  the  vivid  and  eloquent  language  of 
Bradford  of  Austerfield,  who  was  a  young  man 
when  he  crossed  the  German  Ocean,  the  memory 
of  the  impressions  which  these  cities  of  the  Low 
Countries  made  on  their  rustic  minds.  But  "it 
was  not  longe  before  they  saw  the  grimme  and 
grisly  face  of  povertie  coming  upon  them  like  an 
armed  man,  with  whom  they  must  bukle  and  in- 
counter." 

III. 

Robinson  discovered  that  he  was  not  of  a  piece 
with  those  Separatists  who  had  preceded  him  to 
Amsterdam.  In  one  division  of  these,  questions  of 
whalebone  in  bodices,  of  high-heeled  shoes  and 
women's  hats,  distracted  scrupulous  minds.  In  the 
other,  which  came  from  the  same  part  of  Eng 
land  as  Robinson's  church,  the  agitations  were 
of  a  theological  nature.  Questions  about  the 
baptism  of  infants  and  the  inherent  righteous 
ness  of  man  and  the  portion  of  his  nature  that 
Christ  derived  from  his  mother,  with  discussions 
of  the  right  of  a  man  to  be  a  magistrate  and  a 
church  member  at  the  same  time,  were  seething  in 
the  heated  brain  of  the  scrupulous  but  saintly  pas 
tor.  Robinson  saw  that  these  controversies  would 
involve  the  Scrooby  church  if  it  remained  in  Am 
sterdam.  In  Robinson  the  centrifugal  force  of 
Separatism  had  already  spent  itself,  and  his  prac 
tical  wisdom  had  set  bounds  to  the  course  of  his 


CHAP.  III. 


Bradford's 
Plimoth 
Plantation 
16. 


Removal 
toLeyden. 


1 66 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


logic.  To  leave  the  Dutch  metropolis  for  a  small 
er  place  was  to  reduce  the  Scrooby  exiles  to  still 
deeper  poverty,  but  nevertheless  the  Pilgrims  fled 
from  discord  as  they  had  fled  from  persecution, 
and  removed  to  the  university  city  of  Leyden, 
called  by  its  admirers  "the  Athens  of  the  Occi 
dent."  After  their  departure  English  Separatism 
in  Amsterdam  went  on  tearing  itself  to  pieces  in  a 
sincere  endeavor  to  find  ultimate  theological  truth, 
but  Robinson's  people  in  spite  of  their  poverty 
were  united,  and  were  honored  by  those  among 
whom  they  sojourned.  Others,  hearing  of  their 
good  report,  came  to  them  from  England,  and  the 
exiled  church  of  Leyden  was  fairly  prosperous. 

IV. 

But  when  ten  years  of  exile  had  passed  the  out 
look  was  not  a  pleasant  one.  The  life  in  Leyden 
was  so  hard  that  many  chose  to  return  to  their 
own  land,  preferring  English  prisons  to  liberty  at 
so  dear  a  rate.  The  "  tender  hearts  of  many  a  lov 
ing  father  and  mother  "  were  wounded  to  see  chil 
dren  growing  prematurely  decrepit  under  the 
weight  of  hard  and  incessant  toil ;  "  the  vigor  of 
Nature  being  consumed  in  the  very  bud  as  it 
were."  Some  of  the  young  people  were  contami 
nated  by  the  dissoluteness  of  the  city,  others  joined 
the  Dutch  army  or  made  long  voyages  at  sea,  ac 
quiring  habits  very  foreign  to  the  strictness  of 
their  parents.  The  result  of  a  contest  between  the 
rigid  Puritanism  of  the  little  church  and  the  laxity 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


prevalent  in  Holland  was  not  to  be  doubted.  Hu 
man  nature  can  not  remain  always  at  concert  pitch. 
Intermarriages  with  the  Dutch  had  already  begun, 
and  all  that  was  peculiar  in  the  English  commu 
nity  was  about  to  be  swallowed  up  and  lost  for 
ever  in  the  great  current  of  Dutch  life  which 
flowed  about  it. 

Puritanism  was  in  its  very  nature  aggressive, 
even  meddlesome.  It  was  not  possible  for  a  Puritan 
church,  led  by  such  men  as  Robinson,  and  Brew- 
ster,  and  Carver,  and  Bradford,  and  Winslow,  to 
remain  content  where  national  prejudices  and  a 
difference  in  language  barred  the  way  to  the  exer 
tion  of  influence  on  the  life  about  them.  With  de 
struction  by  absorption  threatening  their  church, 
these  leaders  conceived  the  project  of  forming  a 
new  state  where  they  "  might,  with  the  liberty  of  a 
good  conscience,  enjoy  the  pure  Scripture  worship 
of  God  without  the  mixture  of  human  inventions 
and  impositions ;  and  their  children  after  them 
might  walk  in  the  holy  ways  of  the  Lord." 

V. 

What  suggested  in  1617  the  thought  of  migra 
tion  to  America  we  do  not  know.  Just  twenty 
years  earlier,  in  1597,  some  imprisoned  Brownists 
had  petitioned  the  Privy  Council  that  they  might  be 
allowed  to  settle  "  in  the  province  of  Canada,"  an 
indefinite  term  at  that  time.  Francis  Johnson  with 
three  others  went  out  in  that  same  year  to  look  at 
the  land.  The  voyage  was  an  unlucky  one,  and 


CHAP.  III. 


Emigra 
tion 
planned. 


Compare 
Winslow 
in  Young, 
387- 


Puritans 
and  Amer 
ican  set 
tlements. 


Wadding- 
ton's  Cong. 
Hist.,  ii, 
113,  114. 


TJie  Puritan  Migration. 


the  settlement  of  Johnson  as  pastor  of  the  church 
in  Amsterdam  was  the  result.  The  persecutions 
which  followed  the  accession  of  Bancroft  to  the 
archbishopric  had  started  as  early  as  1608  a  wide 
spread  agitation  among  the  Puritans  in  favor  ol 
emigration  to  Virginia,  but,  when  only  a  few  had 
got  away,  the  primate  secured  a  proclamation  pre 
venting  their  escape  from  the  means  of  grace  pro 
vided  for  them  in  Courts  of  High  Commission. 

The  year  1617,  in  which  the  agitation  for  emi 
gration  began  among  the  Pilgrims,  was  the  year 
after  Dale's  return  with  highly  colored  reports  of 
the  condition  of  the  Virginia  colony.  It  is  notice 
able  that  among  the  books  owned  by  Elder  Brew- 
ster  at  his  death  was  a  copy  of  Whitaker's  Good 
Newes  from  Virginia,  published  in  1613.  Whitaker 
was  minister  at  Henrico  in  Virginia,  and  was  the 
son  of  a  Puritan  divine  of  eminence  who  was 
master  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  It  is 
possible  that  he  was  known  to  Brewster,  who  had 
been  at  Cambridge,  or  to  Robinson,  who  had  re 
signed  a  fellowship  there  to  become  a  Separatist. 
Whitaker  himself  was  Puritan  enough  to  discard  the 
surplice.  His  Good  Newes  is  an  earnest  plea  for  the 
support  of  the  colony  for  religious  reasons.  "  This 
plantation  which  the  divell  hath  so  often  troden 
downe,"  he  says,  "  is  revived  and  daily  groweth  to 
more  and  hopeful  successe."  At  the  very  time 
when  the  Pilgrims  first  thought  of  migrating  there 
was  beginning  a  new  and  widespread  interest  in 
Virginia.  This  was  based  partly  on  religious  en- 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


169 


thusiasm,  such  as  Whitaker's  book  was  meant  to 
foster,  and  partly  on  the  hope  of  new  and  strange 
commodities,  particularly  silk.  Even  this  silk  illu 
sion  may  have  had  its  weight  in  a  secondary  way 
with  the  Leyden  people,  for  Bradford,  afterward 
governor  at  Plymouth,  was  a  silk-weaver  in  Ley- 
den,  and  there  were  two  books  on  silkworms  in 
Brewster's  library  at  his  death. 

To  European  eyes  all  America  was  one ;  even 
to-day  the  two  Americas  are  hardly  distinguished 
by  most  people  in  Europe.  The  glowing  account 
of  Guiana  given  by  Ralegh  helped  to  feed  the  new 
desire  for  an  American  home;  and  it  was  only 
after  serious  debate  that  North  America  was 
chosen,  as  more  remote  from  the  dreaded  Spaniard 
and  safer  from  tropical  diseases.  One  can  hardly 
imagine  what  American  Puritanism  would  have 
become  under  the  skies  of  Guiana.  Not  only  did 
the  Pilgrims  hesitate  regarding  their  destination, 
but  there  was  a  choice  of  nationalities  to  be  made. 
England  had  not  been  a  motherly  mother  to  these 
outcast  children,  and  there  was  question  of  set 
tling  as  English  subjects  in  America,  or  becoming 
Dutch  colonists  there. 

VI. 

The  Pilgrims  preferred  to  be  English,  notwith 
standing  all.  But  they  wished  to  stipulate  with 
England  for  religious  liberty.  In  this  matter  they 
had  recourse  to  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  the  one  man 
who  would  probably  be  both  able  and  willing  to 


CHAP.  III. 


Inventory 
of  books. 
Winsor's 
pamphlet 
on  Elder 
Brewster. 


Alterna 
tives. 


Applica 
tion  to 
Sandys. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


help  them.  Brewster  had  lived,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  an  old  episcopal  manor  at  Scrooby.  Sandys, 
Archbishop  of  York,  had  transferred  this  manor  by 
a  lease  to  his  eldest  son,  Sir  Samuel  Sandys,  who 
was  Brewster's  landlord  and  brother  of  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys.  Of  Sir  Edwin  the  great  liberal  parlia 
mentary  statesman,  Fuller  says,  "  He  was  right- 
handed  to  any  great  employment."  In  1617  he 
was  already  the  most  influential  of  the  progressive 
leaders  of  the  Virginia  Company,  its  acting  though 
not  yet  its  nominal  head,  and  in  1619  he  was  elected 
governor  of  the  Company.  Brewster's  fellow-sec 
retary  under  Davison  was  a  chosen  friend  of  San 
dys,  and,  in  view  of  both  these  connections,  we 
may  consider  it  almost  certain  that  the  two  were 
not  strangers.  To  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  was  due 
much  of  the  new  interest  in  Virginia.  He  and  his 
group  seem  to  have  been  already  striving  to  shape 
the  colony  into  a  liberal  state. 

To  meet  the  views  of  the  Leyden  people, 
Sandys  endeavored  by  the  intervention  of  a  more 
acceptable  courtier  to  gain  assurance  from  the 
king,  under  the  broad  seal,  that  their  religion 
should  be  tolerated  if  they  migrated  to  Virginia. 
But  James's  peculiar  conscience  recoiled  from  this. 
He  intimated  that  he  would  wink  at  their  practices 
but  he  would  not  tolerate  them  by  public  act. 
And,  indeed,  the  Pilgrims  reflected  afterward  that 
"a  scale  as  broad  as  the  house  flore  would  not 
serve  the  turne  "  of  holding  James  to  his  promise. 
At  the  king's  suggestion  the  archbishops  were  ap- 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


171 


plied  to,  but  neither  would  they  formally  approve 
such  an  arrangement.  Nor  can  one  wonder  at 
their  unwillingness,  since  the  most  profound,  lib 
eral,  and  far-seeing  thinker  of  that  age,  Lord 
Bacon  himself,  was  so  far  subject  to  the  prejudices 
of  his  time  that  he  could  protest  against  allowing 
heretics  to  settle  a  colony,  and  could  support  his 
position  by  a  mystical  argument  fit  to  be  advanced 
by  the  most  fantastic  theologian.  "  It  will  make 
schism  and  rent  in  Christ's  coat,  which  must  be 
seamless,"  he  says.  Fie  even  goes  so  far  as  to 
group  Separatists  with  outlaws  and  criminals,  and 
to  advise  that  if  such  should  transplant  themselves 
to  the  colonies  they  should  be  "  sent  for  back  upon 
the  first  notice,"  for  "such  persons  are  not  fit  to 
lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  colony."  Much  more 
fit  than  is  a  speculative  philosopher  to  draw  the 
lines  on  which  practical  undertakings  are  to  be  car 
ried  forward.  The  transplanting  of  English  speech 
and  institutions  to  America  would  have  languished 
as  French  colonization  did,  if  none  but  orthodox 
settlers  had  been  allowed  to  fell  trees  and  build 
cabins  in  the  forest.  Ever  since  the  age  of  stone 
hatchets  colony  planters  have  been  drawn  from  the 
ranks  of  the  uneasy.  An  early  Quaker  governor 
of  South  Carolina  puts  the  matter  less  elegantly 
but  more  justly  than  Bacon  when  he  says :  "  It  is 
stupendious  to  consider,  how  passiona^and  pre 
posterous  zeal,  not  only  vails  but  stupefies  often 
times  the  Rational  Powers :  For  cannot  Dissenters 
kill  Wolves  and  Bears  as  well  as  Churchmen  ? " 


CHAP.  III. 


Bacon's 
Advice  to 
Villiers. 


Archdale's 

Carolina, 

26. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


VII. 

The  liberal  and  practical  mind  of  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys  harbored  none  of  the  scruples  of  Bacon, 
and  his  more  wholesome  conscience  knew  nothing 
of  the  fine  distinctions  of  James  and  the  arch 
bishops  between  formal  toleration  and  a  mere 
winking  at  irregularities.  He  embraced  the  cause 
of  the  Pilgrims  and  became  their  steadfast  friend, 
passing  through  the  Virginia  Company  successively 
two  charters  in  their  behalf,  and  the  general  order 
which  allowed  the  leaders  of  "particular  planta 
tions  "—that  is,  of  such  plantations  as  the  Leyden 
people  and  others  at  that  time  proposed  to  make — 
to  associate  the  sober  and  discreet  of  the  plantation 
with  them  to  make  laws,  orders,  and  constitutions 
not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England.  This  was  a 
wide  door  opening  toward  democratic  government. 
The  patent  given  to  the  Pilgrims  was  also  a  liberal 
one,  and  it  was  even  proposed  to  put  into  their 
hands  a  large  sum  of  money  contributed  anony 
mously  for  the  education  of  Indian  children,  but  to 
this  it  was  objected  that  the  newcomers  would 
lack  the  confidence  of  the  savages.  One  of  the 
Virginia  Company,  possibly  Sandys  himself,  lent 
to  the  Leyden  people  three  hundred  pounds  with 
out  interest  for  three  years.  When  we  consider 
that  the  ^Jgrims  had  to  pay  in  their  first  year  of 
settlement  thirty  and  even  fifty  per  cent,  interest 
on  their  debts,  and  that  this  three  hundred  pounds, 
the  use  of  which  they  received  without  interest, 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


173 


would  be  equal  in  purchasing  power  to  five  or  six 
thousand  dollars  of  our  money,  we  may  readily  be 
lieve  that  this  loan  and  the  semi-independence 
offered  them  under  their  "  large  patent "  from  the 
company,  were  the  considerations  that  decided 
them  in  favor  of  emigration  after  the  English  Gov 
ernment  had  refused  a  guarantee  of  toleration, 
and  the  Dutch  Government  had  declined  to  assure 
them  of  protection  against  England. 

That  group  of  liberal  English  statesmen  who 
were  charged  with  keeping  "a  school  of  sedition  " 
in  the  courts  of  the  Virginian  Company  founded 
the  two  centers  of  liberal  institutions  in  America. 
The  Earl  of  Southampton,  the  Ferrars,  Sir  John 
Danvers,  and  above  all  and  more  than  all,  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  were  the  fathers  of  representative 
government  in  New  England  by  the  charter  of 
February  2,  1620,  as  they  had  been  of  represent 
ative  government  in  Virginia  by  the  charter  of 
November  13,  1618.  When  the  Pilgrims  found 
themselves,  upon  landing,  too  far  north  to  use  their 
"large  patent"  from  the  Virginia  Company,  they 
organized  a  government  on  the  lines  laid  down  in 
the  general  order  of  the  company.  The  govern 
ment  established  by  them  in  their  famous  Com 
pact  was  precisely  the  provisional  government 
which  the  Virginia  Company  in  the  preceding 
February  had  given  them  liberty  to  fqpncl  "  till  a 
form  of  government  be  here  settled  for  them." 
Under  this  compact  they  proceeded  to  confirm 
the  election  of  the  governor,  already  chosen  under 


CHAP.  III. 


Authors  of 
the  Plym 
outh 
Govern 
ment. 


Note  4. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


the  authority   derived   from  the  charter,  now  in 
valid. 

The  enemies  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  did  not  fail 
to  make  use  of  his  friendship  for  the  Leyden  people 
to  do  him  injury.  It  was  afterward  charged  that 
he  was  opposed  to  monarchical  government,  and 
that  he  had  moved  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
"  to  give  leave  to  the  Brownists  and  Separatists  to 
go  to  Virginia,  and  designed  to  make  a  free  pop 
ular  state  there,  and  himself  and  his  assured  friends 
were  to  be  the  leaders."  That  Sandys  thought  of 
emigration  is  hardly  probable,  but  he  succeeded  in 
establishing  two  popular  governments  in  America 
which  propagated  themselves  beyond  all  that  he 
could  have  hoped  to  achieve. 

VIII. 

"  Small  things,"  wrote  Dudley  to  the  Countess 
of  Lincoln  in  the  first  months  of  the  Massachusetts 
settlement — "  small  things  in  the  beginning  of 
natural  or  politic  bodies  are  as  remarkable  as 
greater  in  bodies  full  grown."  The  obscure  events 
we  have  recited  above  are  capital  because  they  had 
a  deciding  influence  on  the  fate  of  the  Pilgrim  set 
tlement.  It  is  not  within  our  purpose  to  tell  over 
again  the  pathetic  story  of  that  brave  departure  of 
the  younger  and  stronger  of  the  Pilgrims  from 
Leyden  to^iake  the  first  break  into  the  wilderness, 
but  courage  and  devotion  to  an  idea  are  not  com 
mon  ;  courage  and  devotion  that  bring  at  last  im 
portant  results  are  so  rare  that  the  student  of  his- 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


175 


tory,  however  little  disposed  to  indulge  sentiment, 
turns  in  spite  of  himself  to  that  last  all-night  meet 
ing  in  Pastor  Robinson's  large  house  in  the  Belfry 
Lane  at  Leyden.  "  So,"  says  Bradford,  as  if  pen 
ning  a  new  holy  scripture,  "  they  lefte  that  goodly 
and  pleasante  citie,  which  had  been  ther  resting 
place  near  12  years;  but  they  knew  they  were 
pilgrimes  and  looked  not  much  on  those  things,  but 
lift  up  their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their  dearest  cun- 
trie  and  quieted  their  spirits."  Nor  is  it  easy  to 
pass  over  the  solemn  parting  on  the  quay  at  Delft 
Haven,  where,  as  the  time  of  the  tide  forced  the 
final  tearful  separation,  while  even  the  Dutch  spec 
tators  wept  in  sympathy,  the  voice  of  the  beloved 
Robinson  in  a  final  prayer  was  heard  and  the  whole 
company  fell  upon  their  knees  together  for  the  last 
time. 

These  things  hardly  pertain,  perhaps,  to  a  his 
tory  of  life  such  as  this.  It  is  with  the  influences 
that  are  to  mold  the  new  life  while  it  is  plastic  that 
we  are  concerned.  Chief  of  these  is  Robinson  him 
self,  a  Moses  who  was  never  to  see,  even  from  a 
mountain  top,  the  Canaan  to  which  he  had  now  led 
his  people.  He  must  stay  behind  with  the  larger 
half  of  the  church.  Rising  to  the  occasion,  his  last 
words  to  this  little  company  are  worthy  his  mag 
nanimous  soul.  He  eloquently  charged  them  "  be 
fore  God  and  his  blessed  angels  to  follow  him  no 
further  than  he  followed  Christ."  .  .  .  He  was  con 
fident  "  the  Lord  had  more  truth  and  light  to  break 
forth  out  of  his  holy  word."  In  whatever  sense  we 


CHAP.  III. 


Plimoth 
Planta 
tion,  59. 


Robin 
son's  influ 
ence. 


Window's 

Briefe 

Narration, 

Young, 

397- 


176 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


take  them  these  were  marvelous  words  in  the  sev 
enteenth  century.  Robinson  understood  the  pro 
gressive  nature  of  truth  as  apprehended  by  the 
human  mind  in  a  way  that  makes  him  seem  singu 
larly  modern.  In  the  same  address  he  declared  it 
"  not  possible  that  .  .  .  full  perfection  of  knowl 
edge  should  break  forth  at  once."  He  bade  them 
not  to  affect  separation  from  the  Puritans  in  the 
Church  of  England,  but  "  rather  to  study  union 
than  division." 

Admirable  man!  Free  from  pettiness  and  ego 
tism.  Fortunate  man,  who,  working  in  one  of  the 
obscurest  and  dustiest  corners  of  this  noisy  and 
self-seeking  world,  succeeded  in  training  and  send 
ing  out  a  company  that  diffused  his  spirit  and 
teachings  into  the  institutions  and  thoughts  of  a 
great  people  ! 

IX. 

On  a  chain  of  slender  accidents  hung  the  exist 
ence  of  New  England.  Had  the  claims  of  Guiana 
prevailed,  had  the  tempting  offers  of  the  Dutch 
changed  the  allegiance  of  the  Robinsonian  Inde 
pendents,  had  the  Mayflower  reached  her  destina 
tion  in  what  is  now  New  Jersey,  the  current  of 
American  history  would  not  have  flowed  as  it  has. 
A  South  American  New  England,  a  Dutch  New 
England,  or  a  non-peninsular  community  of  Eng- 
glish  Puritans  west  of  the  Hudson  with  good 
wheat  fields  and  no  fisheries  or  foreign  trade,  would 
have  been  different  in  destiny  from  what  we  call 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


177 


New  England,  and  its  influence  on  events  and 
national  character  could  not  have  been  the  same. 
It  will  always  remain  doubtful  whether  or  not 
Jones,  the  captain  of  the  Mayflower,  was  bribed  by 
the  Dutch,  as  the  Plymouth  people  came  to  believe. 
Nothing-  could  be  more  probable  in  view  of  the 
general  bad  character  of  the  seamen  of  that  time 
and  the  eagerness  of  one  political  party  in  Hol 
land  to  secure  a  foothold  for  the  Dutch  in  America; 
but  whether  Jones,  who  seems  to  have  borne  a  bad 
reputation,  was  bribed,  or,  as  he  pretended,  became 
entangled  in  the  shoals  of  Cape  Cod  and  turned 
back  in  real  despair  of  finding  his  way,  is  of  no  mo 
ment.  He  turned  back  and  came  to  anchor  in 
Provincetown  Harbor.  Here  the  threats  of  the 
brutal  seamen,  unwilling  to  go  farther,  and  the 
clamor  of  the  overcrowded  and  sea-weary  passen 
gers  did  the  rest.  To  continue  longer  closely 
cabined  in  the  little  ship  was  misery  and  perhaps 
death.  Here  was  land,  and  that  was  enough.  And 
so,  after  exploration  of  the  whole  coast  of  Cape 
Cod  Bay,  the  place  already  named  Plymouth  on 
John  Smith's  map  was  selected  for  a  settlement. 
Here  the  landing  was  made  on  the  nth  of  Decem 
ber,  O.  S.,  1620. 

Camden  has  preserved  to  us  an  old  English  say 
ing  accepted  in  the  days  of  the  Pilgrims,  to  the 
effect  that  "  a  barren  country  is  a  great  whet 
to  the  industry  of  a  people."  It  was  the  wedding 
of  an  austere  creed  to  an  austere  soil  under  an 
austere  sky  that  gave  the  people  of  New  England 
13 


CHAP.  III. 


Morton's 
Memorial, 
6th  edition, 
p.  22,  note. 


Compare 
Asher's 
History  of 
W.  I. 
Company 
in  Bibl. 
Essay. 


Note  7. 


Note  8. 


Elements 
of  New 
England. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  n. 


Earlier  at 
tempts  to 
colonize 
New  Eng 
land. 


their  marked  character,  and  the  severe  economic 
conditions  imposed  by  the  soil  and  climate  were 
even  more  potent  than  Puritanism  in  producing 
the  traits  that  go  to  make  up  the  New  England  of 
history. 

x. 

The  unwise  management  that  ruined  nearly  all 
projects  for  colonization  in  that  age  and  that  pro 
duced  such  disasters  in  Virginia,  had  defeated  every 
earlier  attempt  to  plant  English  people  on  the  New 
England  coast.  Gosnold  had  taken  a  colony  to  Eliza 
beth  Island  in  Buzzard's  Bay  in  1602,  but  the  men 
went  back  in  the  ship  in  order  to  share  the  profit 
of  a  cargo  of  sassafras.  Captain  George  Popham 
was  the  head  of  a  party  that  undertook  to  colonize 
the  coast  of  Maine  in  1607,  but  having  suffered 
"  extreme  extremities  "  during  the  winter,  the  col 
onists  returned  the  following  year.  In  1615  Cap 
tain  John  Smith  himself  set  out  with  sixteen  men, 
only  to  be  taken  by  a  French  privateer.  These 
and  other  attempts  ending  in  failure,  and  many  dis 
astrous  trading  voyages,  led  to  a  belief  that  the 
Indian  conjurers,  who  were  known  to  be  the  devil's 
own,  had  laid  a  spell  on  the  northern  coast  to  keep 
the  white  people  away.  This  enchanted  land 
might  long  have  lain  waste  if  Captain  Jones  of  the 
Mayflower,  sailing  to  Hudson  River  or  the  region 
south  of  it,  had  not  run  foul  of  the  shoals  of  Cape 
Cod. 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


179 


XI. 

The  Pilgrims  suffered,  like  their  predecessors, 
from  the  prevailing  unskillfulness  in  colony-plant 
ing.  They  had  escaped  from  the  horrors  of  the 
Mayflower,  but  how  much  better  was  the  wild  land 
than  the  wild  sea ;  the  rude,  overcrowded  forest 
cabins  than  the  too  populous  ship  ?  "  All  things 
stared  upon  them  with  a  weather-beaten  face,"  says 
Bradford.  The  horrors  of  the  first  winter  in  Vir 
ginia  were  repeated  ;  here,  as  at  Jamestown,  nearly 
all  were  ill  at  once,  and  nearly  half  of  the  people 
died  before  the  coming  of  spring.  The  same  sys 
tem  of  partnership  with  mercenary  shareholders  or 
"adventurers"  in  England  that  had  brought  dis 
aster  in  Virginia  was  tried  with  similar  results  at 
Plymouth,  and  a  similar  attempt  at  communism  in 
labor  and  supply  was  made,  this  time  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions,  among  a  people  consci 
entious  and  bound  together  by  strong  religious 
enthusiasm.  It  resulted,  as  such  sinking  of  per 
sonal  interest  must  ever  result,  in  dissensions  and 
insubordination,  in  unthrift  and  famine. 

The  colony  was  saved  from  the  prolonged  mis 
ery  that  makes  the  early  history  of  Virginia  hor 
rible  by  the  wise  head  and  strong  hand  of  its  leader. 
William  Bradford,  who  had  been  chosen  governor 
on  the  death  of  Carver,  a  few  months  after  the 
arrival  at  Plymouth,  had  been  a  youth  but  eight 
een  years  old  when  he  fled  with  the  rest  of  the 
Scrooby  church  to  Holland.  He  was  bred  to  hus- 


Sufferings 
at  Plym 
outh. 


i  So 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  ii.  t  ban(}ry  and  had  inherited  some  property.  In  Hol 
land  he  became  a  silk  worker  and  on  attaining  his 
majority  set  up  for  himself  in  that  trade.  He  was 
still  a  young  man  when  first  chosen  governor  of 
the  little  colony,  and  he  ruled  New  Plymouth  al 
most  continuously  till  his  death — that  is,  for  about 
thirty-seven  years.  He  was  of  a  magnanimous 
temper,  resolute  but  patient,  devotedly  religious, 
but  neither  intolerant  nor  austere.  He  had  a 
genius  for  quaintly  vivid  expression  in  writing  that 
marked  him  as  a  man  endowed  with  the  literary 
gift,  which  comes  as  Heaven  pleases  where  one 
would  least  look  for  it. 

XII. 

After  two  years  of  labor  in  common  had 
brought  the  colony  more  than  once  to  the  verge 
of  ruin,  Bradford  had  the  courage  and  wisdom 
to  cut  the  knot  he  could  not  untie.  During  the 
scarce  springtime  of  1623,  he  assigned  all  the  de 
tached  persons  in  the  colony  to  live  with  fam 
ilies,  and  then  temporarily  divided  the  ancient 
Indian  field  on  which  the  settlement  had  been 
made  among  the  several  families  in  proportion  to 
their  number,  leaving  every  household  to  shift  for 
itself  or  suffer  want.  "  Any  general  want  or  suffer 
ing  hath  not  been  among  them  since  to  this  day," 
he  writes  years  afterward.  The  assignment  was  a 
revolutionary  stroke,  in  violation  of  the  contract 
with  the  shareholders,  and  contrary  to  their  wishes. 
But  Bradford  saw  that  it  was  a  life-and-death  ne- 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


cessity  to  be  rid  of  the  pernicious  system,  even  at 
the  cost  of  cutting  off  all  support  from  England. 
In  his  history  he  draws  a  very  clear  picture  of  the 
evils  of  communism  as  he  had  observed  them. 


XIII. 

Why  should  the  historian  linger  thus  over  the 
story  of  this  last  surviving  remnant  of  the 
"  Brownists  "  ?  Why  have  we  dwelt  upon  the  little 
settlement  that  was  never  very  flourishing,  that 
consisted  at  its  best  of  only  a  few  thousand  peace 
ful  and  agricultural  people,  and  that  after  seventy 
years  was  merged  politically  in  its  more  vigorous 
neighbor  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay?  His 
torical  importance  does  not  depend  on  population. 
Plymouth  was  the  second  step  in  the  founding  of  a 
great  nation.  When  Bradford  and  the  other  lead 
ers  had  at  last  successfully  extricated  the  little  set 
tlement  from  its  economical  difficulties,  it  became 
the  sure  forerunner  of  a  greater  Puritan  migration. 
This  tiny  free  state  on  the  margin  of  a  wilderness 
continent,  like  a  distant  glimmering  pharos,  showed 
the  persecuted  Puritans  in  England  the  fare-way  to 
a  harbor. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

Sir  John  Harington  says :  "  The  bishops  came  to  the  Kynge 
aboute  the  petition  of  the  puritans  ;  I  was  by,  and  heard  much 
dyscourse.  The  Kynge  talked  muche  Latin,  and  disputed  wyth 
Dr.  Reynoldes,  at  Hampton,  but  he  rather  usede  upbraidinges  than 
argumente ;  and  tolde  the  petitioners  that  they  wanted  to  strip 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Christe  againe,  and  bid  them  awaie  with  their  snivellinge :  more 
over,  he  wishede  those  who  woud  take  away  the  surplice  mighte 
want  linen  for  their  own  breech.  The  bishops  seemed  much 
pleased  and  said  his  Majestic  spoke  by  the  power  of  inspiration. 
I  wist  not  what  they  mean ;  but  the  spirit  was  rather  foule 
mouthede."  Nugae  Antiquae,  i,  181,  182.  James  took  pains  to 
put  an  example  of  his  bad  taste  on  paper.  In  a  letter  on  the  sub 
ject  he  brags  in  these  words  :  "  We  haue  kept  suche  a  reuell  with 
the  Puritainis  heir  these  two  clayes  as  was  neuer  harde  the  lyke, 
quhaire  I  haue  pepperid  thaime  as  soundlie  as  ye  haue  done  the 
papists  thaire.  ...  I  was  forcid  at  the  last  to  saye  unto  thaime, 
that  if  any  of  thaim  hadde  bene  in  a  colledge  disputing  with  their 
skollairs,  if  any  of  their  disciples  had  ansoured  thaim  in  that  sorte 
they  wolde  haue  fetched  him  up  in  place  of  a  replye,  and  so 
shoulde  the  rodde  haue  plyed  upon  the  poore  boyes  buttokis." 
Ellis  Letters,  Third  Series,  iv,  162.  The  principal  authorities  on 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference  are,  first,  "  The  Svmme  and  Svb- 
stance  of  the  Conference,  which  it  pleased  his  excellent  Majestic 
to  have,"  etc.,  "Contracted  by  William  Barlow,  .  .  .  Deane  of 
Chester  "  ;  second,  Dr.  Montague's  letter  to  his  mother,  in  Win- 
wood's  Memorials,  ii,  13-15  ;  third,  the  letter  of  Patrick  Galloway 
to  the  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  in  Caldervvood,  vi,  241,  242  ;  and, 
fourth,  a  letter  from  Tobie  Mathew,  Bishop  of  Durham,  to  Hut- 
ton,  Archbishop  of  York,  in  Strype's  Whitgift  appendix,  xlv. 
Compare  Nugae  Antique,  181,  182,  and  the  king's  letter  to 
Blake,  in  Ellis's  Letters,  third  series,  iv,  161,  which  are  both  cited 
above.  Mr.  Gardiner  has  shown  (History  of  England,  i,  159) 
that  this  letter  is  addressed  to  Northampton.  There  are  several 
documents  relating  to  the  conference  among  the  state  papers 
calendared  by  Mrs.  Greene  under  dates  in  January,  1604.  Of 
the  vigorous  action  taken  against  the  Puritans  after  the  confer 
ence,  some  notion  may  be  formed  by  the  letter  of  protest  from  the 
aged  Matthew  Hutton,  Archbishop  of  York,  to  Lord  Cranborne, 
in  Lodge's  Illustrations  of  British  History,  iii,  115,  and  Cran- 
borne's  reply,  ibid.,  125. 

Stith  has  not  the  weight  of  an  original  authority,  but  he  is 
justly  famous  for  accuracy  in  following  his  authorities,  and  he 
had  access  to  many  papers  relating  to  the  history  of  Virginia 
which  are  now  lost.  Under  the  year  1608  he  says:  ''Doctor 
Whitgift,  Arch-Bishop  of  Canterbury,  .  .  .  having  died  four 
Years  before  this,  was  succeeded  to  that  high  Preferment  by  Dr. 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


Richard  Bancroft.  ...  He  had  very  high  Notions  with  Relation 
to  the  Government  of  both  Church  and  State ;  and  was  accord 
ingly  a  great  Stickler  for,  and  Promoter  of,  the  King's  absolute 
Power,  and  failed  not  to  take  all  Occasions,  to  oblige  the  Puritans 
to  conform  to  the  Church  of  England.  This  Prelate's  Harshness 
and  Warmth  caused  many  of  that  People  to  take  the  Resolution 
this  Year  of  settling  themselves  in  Virginia,  and  some  were  actu 
ally  come  off  for  that  Purpose.  But  the  Arch-bishop,  finding 
that  they  were  preparing  in  great  Numbers  to  depart,  obtained  a 
Proclamation  from  the  King,  forbidding  any  to  go,  without  his 
Majesty's  express  Leave."  History  of  Virginia,  1747,  p.  76. 

For  Whitaker's  filiation,  Neill's  Virginia  Company,  78.  Whit- 
aker's  Good  Newes  from  Virginia  is  no  doubt  intended  by  the 
entry  in  the  inventory  of  Brewster's  goods,  "  Newes  from  Vir 
ginia."  I  know  no  other  book  with  such  a  title.  That  Alexander 
Whitaker  was  himself  touched  with  Puritanism,  or  at  least  was 
not  unwilling  to  have  Puritan  ministers  for  colleagues,  is  rendered 
pretty  certain  from  passages  in  his  letters.  For  instance,  he 
writes  to  Crashaw  from  Jamestown,  August  9,  1611,  desiring  that 
young  and  "godly"  ministers  should  come,  and  adds,  "We  have 
noe  need  either  of  ceremonies  or  bad  livers."  British  Museum, 
Additional  MSS.,  21,993.  (The  letter  is  printed  in  Browne's  Gen 
esis,  499,  500.)  In  a  letter  given  in  Purchas  and  in  Neill,  95, 
dated  June  18,  1614,  he  says  that  neither  subscription  nor  the 
surplice  are  spoken  of  in  Virginia.  It  has  escaped  the  notice  of 
church  historians  that  Whitaker's  semi-Puritanism  seems  to  have 
left  traces  for  many  years  on  the  character  and  usage  of  the 
Virginia  church.  The  Rev.  Hugh  Jones  writes  as  late  as  1724 
in  his  Present  State  of  Virginia,  p.  68,  that  surplices  were  only 
then  "beginning  to  be  brought  in  Fashion,"  and  that  the  people 
in  some  parishes  received  the  Lord's  Supper  sitting. 

The  late  Dr.  Neill  was  the  first,  I  believe,  to  call  attention  to 
this  fact,  though  he  did  not  state  it  quite  so  strongly  as  I  have 
put  it  in  the  text.  It  is  worth  while  transferring  Neill's  remarks 
from  the  New  England  Genealogical  Register,  vol.  xxx,  412,  413 : 
"  The  action  of  the  passengers  of  the  Mayflower  in  forming  a 
social  compact  before  landing  at  Plymouth  Rock  seems  to  have 
been  in  strict  accordance  with  the  policy  of  the  London  Com 
pany,  under  whose  patent  the  ship  sailed.  On  June  9,  1619,  O.  S., 
John  Whincop's  patent  was  duly  sealed  by  the  Company,  but  this 
which  had  cost  the  Puritans  so  much  labor  and  money  was  not 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


used.  Several  months  after,  the  Leyden  people  became  inter 
ested  in  a  new  project.  On  February  2,  i6i9-'2o,  at  a  meeting  at 
the  house  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  in  Aldersgate,  he  stated  to  the 
Company  that  a  grant  had  been  made  to  John  Peirce  and  his  as 
sociates.  At  the  same  quarterly  meeting  it  was  expressly  ordered 
that  the  leaders  of  particular  plantations,  associating  unto  them 
divers  of  the  gravest  and  discreetest  of  their  companies,  shall  have 
liberty  to  make  orders,  ordinances,  and  constitutions  for  the  better 
ordering  and  directing  of  their  business  and  servants,  provided 
they  be  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England."  Bradford,  in  his 
Plimouth  Plantation,  90,  says  they  "  chose  or  rather  confirmed 
Mr.  John  Carver,  .  .  .  their  Governour  for  that  year  "—that  is,  for 
1620.  Mr.  Deane,  the  editor  of  Bradford,  has  lost  the  force  of 
this  by  misunderstanding  a  statement  in  Mourt's  Relation,  so 
called.  See  Deane's  note,  page  99,  of  Bradford.  The  statement 
in  Mourt  is  under  date  of  March  23d.  I  quote  from  the  reprint  in 
Young,  196,  197  :  "and  did  likewise  choose  our  governor  for  this 
present  year,  which  was  Master  John  Carver,"  etc.  Young  ap 
plies  Bradford's  words,  "or  rather  confirmed,"  to  this  event,  and 
Deane  also  supposes  that  Bradford  confuses  two  elections.  Car 
ver  was  no  doubt  chosen  in  England  or  Holland  under  authority 
of  the  charter  to  serve  for  the  calendar  year,  and  confirmed  or 
rechosen  after  the  Compact  was  signed.  What  took  place  on  the 
23d  of  March  was  that  a  governor  was  elected  for  the  year  1621, 
which,  according  to  the  calendar  of  that  time,  began  on  the  25th 
of  March.  For  the  next  year  they  chose  Carver,  who  was  already 
"governor  for  this  present  year,"  and  whose  first  term  was  about 
to  expire.  Both  Deane  and  Young  failed  to  perceive  the  preg 
nant  fact  that  Carver  was  governor  during  the  voyage,  and  so  lost 
the  force  of  the  words  "or  rather  confirmed."  Bradford,  in  that 
portion  of  his  History  of  Plimouth  Plantation  which  relates  to  this 
period,  gives  several  letters  illustrating  the  negotiations  of  the 
Pilgrims  with  the  Virginia  Company.  The  MS.  Records  of  the 
Company  in  the  Library  of  Congress,  under  dates  of  May  26  and 
June  9,  1619,  and  February  19,  1620  (1619  O.  S.),  contain  the 
transactions  relating  to  the  Whincop  Charter,  which  was  not 
used,  on  account  of  Whincop's  death,  and  the  Pierce  Charter, 
which  the  Pilgrims  took  with  them. 

The  charge  against  Sandys  is  in  the  Duke  of  Manchester's 
papers,  Royal  Historical  MS.  Commission  viii,  II,  45.  It  is  re 
markable  that  the  dominant  liberal  faction  in  the  Virginia  Com- 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


pany  is  here  accused  of  seeking  to  do  what  the  Massachusetts 
Company  afterward  did — to  wit,  to  found  a  popular  American 
government  by  virtue  of  powers  conferred  in  a  charter.  That 
liberal  government  in  New  England  had  its  rise  in  the  arrange 
ments  made  with  the  London  or  Virginia  Company  before 
sailing,  and  not,  as  poets,  painters,  and  orators  have  it,  in  the 
cabin  of  the  Mayflower,  is  sufficiently  attested  in  a  bit  of  evi 
dence,  conspicuous  enough,  but  usually  overlooked.  Robinson's 
farewell  letter  to  the  whole  company,  which  reached  them  in 
England,  is  in  Bradford,  64-67,  and  in  Mourt's  Relation.  It  has 
several  significant  allusions  to  the  form  of  government  already 
planned.  "  And  lastly,  your  intended  course  of  civill  communi- 
tie  will  minister  continuall  occasion  of  offence."  The  allusion 
here  seems  to  be  to  the  joint-stock  and  communistic  system  of 
labor  and  living  proposed.  In  another  paragraph  the  allusion 
is  to  the  system  of  government :  "  Whereas,  you  are  become  a 
body  politik,  using  amongst  your  selves  civill  governmente,  and 
are  not  furnished  with  any  persons  of  spetiall  emencie  above  the 
rest,  to  be  chosen  by  you  into  office  of  governmente,"  etc., 
"  you  are  at  present  to  have  only  them  for  your  ordinarie  gov- 
ernours,  which  your  selves  shall  make  choyse  of  for  that  worke." 
That  the  government  under  the  Virginia  Company  was  to  be 
democratic  is  manifest.  The  compact  was  a  means  of  giving  it 
the  sanction  of  consent  where  the  patent  and  the  general  order 
did  not  avail  for  that  purpose. 

Winslow's  Briefe  Narration  appended  to  his  Hypocrisie 
Vnmasked  is  the  only  authority  for  Robinson's  address.  Dr. 
H.  M.  Dexter  has  with  characteristic  wealth  of  learning  and  in 
genuity  sought  to  diminish  the  force  of  these  generous  words  of 
Robinson  in  his  Congregationalism,  403  and  ff.  But  the  note 
struck  in  this  farewell  address  was  familiar  to  the  later  followers 
of  Robinson's  form  of  Independency.  Five  of  the  ministers  who 
went  to  Holland  in  1637  and  founded  churches,  published  in  1643 
a  tract  called  An  Apologeticall  Narrative  Humbly  Submitted  to 
the  Honourable  Houses  of  Parliament.  By  Thomas  Goodwin, 
Phillip  Nye,  Sidrach  Simpson,  Jer.  Borroughs,  William  Bridge. 
London,  1643.  From  the  copy  in  the  British  Museum  I  quote: 
"  A  second  principle  we  carryed  along  with  us  in  all  our  resolu 
tions  was,  Not  to  make  our  present  judgment  and  practice  a 
binding  law  unto  ourselves  for  the  future  which  we  in  like  man 
ner  made  continuall  profession  of  upon  all  occasions."  On  page 


CHAP.  III. 


Note  6, 
page  176. 


i86 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


22  Robinson's  words  are  almost  repeated  in  the  phrase  "they 
coming  new  out  of  popery  .  .  .  might  not  be  perfect  the  first 
day."  Robinson's  early  colleague,  Smyth,  the  unpractical,  much- 
defamed,  but  saintly  "Anabaptist,"  says  in  a  tract  published 
after  his  death,  "  I  continually  search  after  the  truth."  Robinson 
wrote  a  reply  to  a  portion  of  this  tract.  See  Barclay's  Inner 
Life,  appendix  to  Chapter  V,  where  the  tract  is  given.  This 
holding  of  their  opinions  in  a  state  of  flux,  this  liberal  expectancy 
of  a  further  evolution  of  opinion,  was  a  trait  to  be  admired  in  the 
early  Separatists  in  an  age  when  modesty  in  dogmatic  statement 
was  exceedingly  rare. 

Neill,  in  the  Historical  Magazine  for  January,  1869,  and  the 
New  England  Genealogical  Register,  1874,  identifies  the  May 
flower  captain  with  Jones  of  the  Discovery,  who  was  accounted 
in  Virginia  "  dishonest."  But  honest  seamen  were  few  in  that 
half-piratical  age.  That  he  was  hired  by  the  Dutch  to  take  the 
Pilgrims  elsewhere  than  to  Hudson  River  is  charged  in  Morton's 
Memorial,  and  is  not  in  itself  unlikely.  But  the  embarrassments 
of  Cape  Cod  shoals  were  very  real  ;  a  trading  ship  sent  out  by 
the  Pilgrims  after  their  settlement,  failed  to  find  a  way  round 
the  cape. 

Early  New  England  writers  were  not  content  with  giving  the 
Pilgrims  the  honor  due  to  them.  Hutchinson  asserts  that  the 
Virginia  Colony  had  virtually  failed,  and  that  the  Pilgrim  settle 
ment  was  the  means  of  reviving  it.  This  has  been  often  repeated 
on  no  other  authority  than  that  of  Hutchinson,  who  wrote  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half  after  the  event.  The  list  of  patents  for 
plantations  in  Virginia  as  given  by  Purchas,  in  which  appears 
that  of  Master  "  Wincop,"  under  which  the  Pilgrims  proposed  to 
plant,  is  a  sufficient  proof  that  Virginia  was  not  languishing. 
"  These  patentees,"  says  Purchas,  "  have  undertaken  to  transport 
to  Virginia  a  great  multitude  of  people  and  store  of  cattle." 
Virginia  had  reached  the  greatest  prosperity  it  attained  before 
the  dissolution  of  the  company,  in  precisely  the  years  in  which 
the  slender  Pilgrim  Colony  was  preparing.  It  is  quite  possible 
to  honor  the  Pilgrims  without  reversing  the  order  of  cause  and 
effect. 

Bradford's  Plimouth  Plantation,  135,  136  :  "  The  experience 
that  was  had  in  this  commone  course  and  condition,  tried  sun- 
drie  years,  and  that  amongst  godly  and  sober  men,  may  well 


The  Pilgrim  Migrations. 


evince  the  vanitie  of  that  conceite  of  Platos  and  other  ancients, 
applauded  by  some  of  later  times — that  the  taking  away  of  prop- 
ertie,  and  bringing  in  communitie  into  a  comone  wealth,  would 
make  them  happy  and  florishing  ;  as  if  they  were  wiser  than 
God.  For  this  communitie  (so  fare  as  it  was)  was  found  to  breed 
much  confusion  and  discontent,  and  retard  much  imployment 
that  would  have  been  to  their  benefite  and  comforte.  For  the 
yong-men  that  were  most  able  and  fitte  for  labour  and  service  did 
repine  that  they  should  spend  their  time  and  streingth  to  worke 
for  other  mens  wives  and  children  with  out  any  recompence. 
The  strong,  or  man  of  parts,  had  no  more  in  devission  of  victails 
and  cloaths,  then  he  that  was  weake  and  not  able  to  doe  a  quarter 
the  other  could  ;  this  was  thought  injuestice.  The  aged  and 
graver  men  to  be  ranked  and  equalised  in  labours,  and  victails, 
cloaths,  &c.,  with  the  meaner  and  yonger  sorte,  thought  it  some 
indignite  and  disrespect  unto  them.  And  for  mens  wives  to  be 
commanded  to  doe  servise  for  other  men,  as  dresing  their  meate, 
washing  their  cloaths,  &c.,  they  deemd  it  a  kind  of  slaverie, 
neither  could  many  husbands  well  brooke  it.  Upon  the  point  all 
being  to  have  alike,  and  all  to  doe  alike,  they  thought  them  selves 
in  the  like  condition,  and  one  as  good  as  another  ;  and  so  if  it  did 
not  cut  of  those  relations  that  God  hath  set  amongest  men  yet  it 
did  much  diminish  and  take  of  the  mutuall  respects  that  should 
be  preserved  amongst  them.  And  would  have  bene  worse  if 
they  had  been  men  of  another  condition." 


CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER   THE   FOURTH. 
THE   GREAT  PURITAN  EXODUS. 


BOOK  II. 

Result  of 
the  Pil 
grim  set 
tlement. 


I. 

MEN  who  undertake  a  great  enterprise  rarely 
find  their  anticipations  fulfilled  ;  they  are  fortunate 
if  their  general  aim  is  reached  at  last  in  any  way. 
The  Pilgrims  had  migrated,  hoping  to  be  "step 
ping-stones  to  others,"  as  they  phrased  it.  They 
thought  that  many  like-minded  in  matters  of  re 
ligion  would  come  to  them  out  of  England,  but 
the  Separatist  movement  had  been  worn  out  by 
persecution.  There  were  few  open  dissenters  left, 
and  the  Pilgrims,  by  their  long  exile,  had  lost  all 
close  relations  with  their  own  country.  Among 
those  that  came  to  Plymouth  from  England  were 
some  whose  coming  tended  to  dilute  the  religious 
life  and  lower  the  moral  standards  of  the  colony. 
The  fervor  of  the  Pilgrims  themselves  abated 
something  of  its  intensity  in  the  preoccupations 
incident  to  pioneer  life.  The  hope  of  expanding 
their  religious  organization  by  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  colony  was  not  fulfilled  ;  discontented  Puri 
tans  were  not  eager  to  settle  under  the  government 
of  Separatists,  and  ten  years  after  their  migration 
the  Plymouth  colony  contained  little  more  than 
three  hundred  people. 

188 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


189 


None  the  less  the  hope  of  the  Pilgrims  was  real 
ized  ;  they  became  stepping-stones  to  thousands  of 
others.  Captain  John  Smith  laughed  at  the  "hu 
morous  ignorances  "  of  these  "  Brownist  "  settlers, 
but,  humorous  or  not,  ignorant  or  not,  the  "  Brown- 
ists  "  remained  on  the  coast  while  other  emigrants 
retreated.  In  spite  of  their  terrible  suffering  none 
of  the  Pilgrims  went  back.  This  is  the  capital  fact 
in  their  history.  A  new  force  had  been  introduced 
into  colonization.  Henceforth  persecuted  or  dis 
contented  religionists,  prompted  by  a  motive  vastly 
more  strenuous  and  enduring  than  cupidity,  were 
to  bear  the  main  brunt  of  breaking  a  way  into  the 
wilderness. 

The  first  effect  of  the  slender  success  at  Plym 
outh  was  to  stimulate  speculative  and  merely  ad 
venturous  migration.  From  1607  until  the  arrival 
of  the  Pilgrims  in  1620  no  English  colony  had 
landed  on  the  northern  coast;  but  after  the  Pil 
grims  came,  fish-drying  and  fur-buying  stations  be 
gan  to  appear  on  the  banks  of  the  Piscataqua  and 
the  coast  eastward  in  1622  and  1623.  These  tiny 
settlements  were  germs  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Maine,  the  only  New  England  plantations  begun 
without  any  admixture  of  religious  motives.  A 
commercial  colony  was  tried  in  Massachusetts  Bay 
as  early  as  1622,  but  it  failed.  There  were  other 
like  attempts.  In  1624  some  men  of  Dorchester, 
headed  by  John  White,  the  "  Patriarch  "  Puritan 
clergyman,  sent  out  a  colony  to  Cape  Ann.  The 
members  of  this  company  were  to  grow  maize  to 


CHAP.  IV. 

The 

religious 

motive. 


Commer 
cial  settle 
ments. 


190 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


John 
White's 
The  Plant 
er's  Plea, 
in  Young's 
Chronicles 
of  Mass. 


Individual 
settlers. 


supply  fishing  ships,  and  in  the  season  the  same 
men  were  to  lend  a  hand  on  board  the  ships,  which 
would  thus  be  saved  the  necessity  for  carrying 
double  crews.  But  this  plausible  scheme  proved  a 
case  of  seeking  strawberries  in  the  sea  and  red  her 
rings  in  the  wood.  Farmers  were  but  lubbers  at 
codfishing,  and  salt-water  fishermen  were  clumsy 
enough  in  the  cornfield.  Losses  of  several  sorts 
forced  the  Dorchester  Company  to  dissolve.  Four 
members  of  their  futile  colony,  encouraged  by 
a  message  from  White,  remained  on  Cape  Ann. 
Removing  to  the  present  site  of  Salem,  they  waited 
at  the  risk  of  their  lives  for  the  coming  of  a  new 
colony  from  England. 

Solitary  adventurers  of  the  sort  known  on  near 
ly  every  frontier  were  presently  to  be  found  in  sev 
eral  places.  The  scholarly  recluse  was  represented 
by  Blackstone,  who  had  selected  for  his  secluded 
abode  a  spot  convenient  to  a  spring  of  good  water 
where  the  town  of  Boston  was  afterward  planted  ; 
the  inevitable  Scotch  adventurer  was  on  an  island 
in  Boston  Harbor ;  Samuel  Maverick,  a  pattern  of 
frontier  hospitality  and  generosity,  took  up  his 
abode  on  Noddle's  Island  ;  while  the  rollicking  and 
scoffing  libertine  was  found  in  Thomas  Morton, 
who  with  some  rebellious  bond  servants  got  posses 
sion  of  a  fortified  house  in  what  is  now  Braintree. 
Here  Morton  welcomed  renegade  servants  from 
Plymouth  and  elsewhere.  He  wrote  ribald  verses 
which  he  posted  on  his  Maypole,  and  devised  May- 
dances  in  which  the  saturnine  Indian  women  par- 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


191 


ticipated.  He  broke  all  the  commandments  with 
delight,  carried  on  a  profitable  trade  in  selling  fire 
arms  to  the  savages  in  defiance  of  royal  proclama 
tions,  and  wrought  whatever  other  deviltry  came 
within  his  reach,  until  his  neighbors  could  no  longer 
endure  the  proximity  of  so  dangerous  a  firebrand. 
Little  Captain  Standish,  whom  Morton  derisively 
dubbed  "  Captain  Shrimp,"  descended  on  this  king 
dom  of  misrule  at  last  and  broke  up  the  perpetual 
carnival,  sending  Morton  to  England. 

The  settlement  of  New  England  was  thus  be 
ginning  sporadically  and  slowly.  If  the  Massachu 
setts  Puritans  had  not  come,  these  feeble  and  scat 
tered  plantations  might  have  grown  into  colonies 
after  a  long  time,  as  such  beginnings  did  in  New 
Hampshire  and  Maine,  and  later  in  North  Caro 
lina,  but  having  no  strong  neighbor  to  support 
them,  it  is  likely  that  they  would  all  have  been 
driven  away  or  annihilated  by  some  inevitable  col 
lision  with  the  Indians. 

II. 

English  Puritanism  throughout  the  reign  of 
James  I  had  been  the  party  of  strict  morals,  of 
austere  and  Pharisaic  scrupulosity,  of  rigid  Sab 
bath  observance,  and  of  Calvinistic  dogmatism. 
During  that  reign  it  had  passed  through  its  last 
transformation  in  becoming  a  political  party — the 
party  of  anti-Catholic  politics  at  home  and  abroad. 
Because  Parliament  was  on  its  side,  the  mere 
course  of  events  had  made  the  Puritan  party  favor 


CHAP.  IV. 


Note  i. 


Puritan 
ism  at  the 
accession 
of  Charles 
I. 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Later  Pu 
ritanism 
conserva 
tive. 


the  predominance  of  Parliament,  and  this  brought 
it  to  represent  liberalism  in  politics.  By  his  un 
concealed  partisanship,  James  had  contrived  to 
make  the  Puritans  a  permanent  opposition  sus 
pected  of  disliking  monarchy  itself.  Charles  I  was 
even  more  the  antagonist  of  Puritanism  than  James. 
In  one  other  respect  the  position  of  Puritanism 
had  been  gradually  changed  by  mere  parallax.  In 
Elizabeth's  reign  it  had  been  the  party  of  innova 
tion.  It  was  no  longer  the  party  of  change  in  re 
ligion  when  Charles  came  to  the  throne.  The 
adoption  of  the  Arminian  system  of  doctrine  by 
many  of  the  High-churchmen,  and  the  reaction 
ary  innovations  now  proposed  by  ecclesiastics  like 
Laud,  had  left  Puritanism  to  stand  for  Protestant 
conservatism.  It  was  immeasurably  the  gainer 
with  the  mass  of  slow-moving  people  by  this 
change  of  relative  position.  The  parliamentary 
struggle  with  James  and  Charles  added  to  the 
religious  Puritans  a  numerous  body  of  political 
Puritans  who,  without  much  care  about  religion, 
were  fain  to  ally  their  political  discontent  with  the 
discontent  of  those  who  resisted  ecclesiastical  re 
trogression.  This  compact  party,  powerful  after 
all  its  defeats,  was  bound  by  its  position  to  cher 
ish  every  aspiration  for  the  improvement  of  morals, 
every  indignant  movement  for  the  suppression  of 
abuses,  and  it  became  the  ally  of  every  popular 
resentment  against  royal  absolutism  or  episcopal 
encroachment,  and  the  advocate,  almost  to  fanati 
cism,  of  an  anti-Spanish  foreign  policy,  and  a  do- 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


mestic  policy  in  which  repression  and  persecution 
of  Roman  Catholics  held  first  place. 

in. 

But  the  king  and  the  High-churchmen  were 
the  party  in  possession.  Buckingham,  in  the  first 
years  of  Charles,  was  more  than  ever  dominant  at 
court,  and  Buckingham's  favorite,  just  rising  above 
the  horizon,  was  Dr.  Laud,  Bishop  of  St.  Davids 
at  the  death  of  James,  and  soon  afterward  trans 
lated  to  Bath  and  Wells  and  then  to  London.  It 
soon  came  to  be  understood  that  he  was  only  wait 
ing  for  the  death  of  his  opponent,  Archbishop  Ab 
bott,  to  take  the  primacy,  much  of  the  power  of 
which  he  had  already  contrived  to  grasp.  On  the 
death  of  Buckingham,  Laud  succeeded  him  as 
chief  favorite  at  court.  The  one  great  and  real 
service  which  this  able  and  indefatigable  divine 
rendered  the  world  is  the  last  he  would  have 
chosen.  He  was  the  main  spur  to  the  settlement 
of  Puritan  colonies  in  New  England. 

Do  our  best,  we  moderns  shall  hardly  avoid  in 
justice  in  our  opinion  of  Laud.  The  changes  of 
time  and  the  advance  of  ideas  have  rendered  a 
sympathetic  judgment  of  him  difficult.  Ecclesias 
tic  above  all,  he  was  not,  like  Whitgift  and  Ban 
croft,  a  Protestant  High-churchman.  He  sought 
to  make  the  English  church  Catholic  and  medias- 
val,  yet  he  would  on  no  account  attach  it  to  Rome. 
Like  Whitgift,  he  made  the  church  dependent  on 

royal  authority,  and  in  this  he  was  far  removed 
14 


i94 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  ii. 


from  the  earlier  churchmen.  There  was  nothing 
spiritual  in  his  nature ;  his  personal  devotion  had 
neither  agony  nor  exaltation.  He  had  none  of  the 
mediaeval  enthusiasm  that  prompted  the  vigils  of 
his  contemporary,  Nicholas  Ferrar,  for  example, 
and  elevated  the  master  of  Little  Gidding  to  a 
saintship,  amiable  and  touching.  Notwithstanding 
the  energy  of  Laud's  devotion,  his  nature  was  as 
shallow  and  objective  as  it  was  sincere.  It  has 
been  remarked  that  when  Laud  spoke  of  the  beauty 
of  holiness  he  meant  no  more  than  decorum  in  pub 
lic  worship,  the  beauty  of  a  well-ordered  church 
and  of  proper  intonation  and  genuflexion.  He 
seemed  to  touch  a  modern  note  when  he  proposed 
to  suppress  the  futile  debate  between  Calvinists 
and  Arminians  because  it  tended  to  disturb  Chris 
tian  charity ;  but  Laud's  Christian  charity,  like  his 
holiness,  was  purely  external ;  it  was  merely  quiet 
submission  to  one  ritual  and  one  form  of  disci 
pline.  His  relentless,  vindictive,  and  even  cruel 
temper  toward  opponents  showed  him  incapable 
of  conceiving  of  charity  in  any  spiritual  sense.  He 
disliked  controversy  because  it  put  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  uniformity,  and  he  had  no  taste  for 
speculative  debate  because  it  tended  to  undermine 
authority.  His  intellect  was  utterly  practical  and 
phenomenally  acute.  It  was  incredibly  energetic, 
and  its  energy  was  intensified  by  its  narrowness. 
His  attachment  to  the  church  had  no  relation  to 
the  beneficent  utilities  of  the  church.  The  church 
was  a  fetich  for  which  he  was  ready  to  die  without 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


195 


a  murmur.  In  his  zeal  he  was  reckless  of  personal 
danger  and  sometimes  unmindful  of  the  moral  com 
plexion  of  his  actions.  His  egotism  was  so  inter- 
blended  with  his  zeal  that  he  could  not  separate 
one  from  the  other,  nor  can  the  student  of  his 
character.  A  disservice  to  him  was  an  affront  to 
Almighty  God.  The  very  honesty  of  such  a  man 
is  pernicious ;  a  little  duplicity  might  have  soft 
ened  the  outward  manifestations  of  his  hard  nature. 
Unhappily,  there  was  not  even  indolence  or  self- 
indulgence  to  moderate  his  all  but  superhuman 
activity,  which  pushed  his  domination  to  its  pos 
sibilities,  and,  with  a  vigilance  aspiring  to  omnis 
cience,  penetrated  to  the  minutest  details  in  the  ad 
ministration  of  church  and  state.  He  even  filed 
papers  giving  the  elements  of  the  debates  on  good 
works  as  an  evidence  of  sanctification  carried  on 
between  Hooker  and  Cotton  in  the  cabin  meeting 
houses  of  New  England.  For  the  rest  he  presents 
the  paradoxes  one  expects  in  so  marked  a  charac 
ter.  While  he  had  no  taste  for  the  credulous  dog 
matism  of  his  time,  he  showed  a  certain  relish  for 
superstitions  in  recording  dreams  and  omens,  yet 
he  had  none  of  the  timidity  of  superstition.  He 
was,  moreover,  fearless  in  peril,  and  he  faced  un 
popularity  without  flinching.  Stubborn  and  inflex 
ible  with  the  clergy  and  the  populace,  obdurate 
and  pitiless  with  those  who  had  offended  him  or 
his  king  or  his  church,  he  was  flexible  and  insinuat 
ing  in  his  relations  with  those  in  power.  His  un 
worthy  yielding  to  his  early  patron,  the  Earl  of 


CHAP.  IV 


196 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Letter  to 
Selden  in 
Chalmers, 
art.  Laud. 


Political 
conditions 
promote 
emigra 
tion. 


Gorges's 
Briefe  Nar 
ration. 


Devonshire,  in  a  matter  which  concerned  his  eccle 
siastical  conscience,  gave  him  a  bitter  and  lifelong 
repentance.  His  complacence  to  Buckingham,  and 
his  servile  devotion  to  Charles,  seem  a  little  des 
picable.  He  was  even  willing  at  the  last  to  make 
terms  with  Parliament,  when  it  became  plain  that 
Parliament  was  the  new  master.  Though  obse 
quious,  he  was  the  farthest  possible  from  a  coward, 
and  he  accepted  death  on  the  scaffold  with  the 
serene  composure  of  a  martyr. 

IV. 

The  great  migration  to  New  England  set  in 
soon  after  the  beginning  of  Laud's  ascendency  in 
the  ecclesiastical  government  of  England.  It  waned 
as  he  declined,  and  ceased  forever  with  his  fall. 
There  is  a  witty  justness  in  the  phrase  by  which  a 
colonial  historian  dubs  Laud  "  the  father  of  New 
England."  Other  archbishops  had  contented  them 
selves  with  crushing  the  Separatists,  but,  with  char 
acteristic  boldness  and  logical  thoroughness,  Laud 
struck  at  the  powerful  Puritan  party  which  had 
contrived  for  more  than  half  a  century  to  remain  in 
the  Church  of  England  while  protesting  against 
the  discipline  and  service  of  the  church.  The 
arbitrary  government  of  the  new  king,  the  dissolu 
tion  of  Parliament,  and  the  imprisonment  of  liberal 
leaders  cut  off  hope  of  securing  church  reform 
or  a  relaxation  of  oppressive  laws.  High-church 
pulpits  resounded  with  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
king's  absolute  authority  and  the  duty  of  unques- 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


tioning  obedience,  while  the  declared  principles  of 
the  king  and  his  court  left  the  property,  liberty, 
and  life  of  the  subject  exposed  to  the  rapacity  or 
the  vindictiveness  of  those  in  power.  In  view  of 
these  things,  some  of  the  Puritans  began  to  think 
the  American  wilderness  a  better  place  of  resi 
dence  than  England. 


V. 

The  state  of  the  church  was  even  more  a  reason 
for  removal  than  the  oppressions  of  the  govern 
ment.  Persecution  had  failed  to  drive  Puritan 
ministers  or  their  followers  into  what  they  deemed 
the  capital  sin  of  schism.  They  hated  the  domina 
tion  of  the  bishops,  communion  with  the  ungodly, 
and  the  absence  of  a  rigid  discipline.  But  they 
had  been  sustained  through  long  years  of  waiting 
by  the  hope  of  delivering  the  church  from  those 
who  oppressed  and  denied  her.  They  proposed, 
whenever  they  could  gain  power,  to  winnow  the 
chaff  from  the  wheat,  and  they  probably  destined 
the  chaff  to  swift  destruction.  But  the  hope  of 
seeing  a  church  without  spot  or  wrinkle,  prayer 
book  or  bishop,  died  under  the  reactionary  policy 
of  Buckingham  and  Laud,  and  many  came  to  look 
with  favor  on  a  project  whose  full  import  was  only 
whispered  in  the  ear,  to  found  in  the  wilds  of 
America  a  "  particular  church,"  as  they  phrased  it 
— a  new  church  with  a  right  of  priority  in  a  new 
land  and  backed  by  the  sanction  of  the  govern 
ment  of  the  country.  It  was  no  modern  general- 


198 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


ized  love  of  liberty,  civil  or  religious,  but  a 
strenuous  desire  to  find  a  place  where  they  might 
make  real  their  ideal  of  church  organization  that 
brought  the  Puritans  out  of  their  comfortable  nests 
in  England  to  dwell  in  poor  cabins  in  a  wilderness. 
It  is  a  motive  for  braving  dangers  by  sea  and  land 
hard  of  comprehension  in  our  Sadducean  age. 

There  was  one  other  consideration  still  more 
difficult  for  men  of  our  day  to  understand.  Politi 
cal  and  military  reverses  had  apparently  well-nigh 
wrecked  Protestantism  on  the  Continent.  Many 
Protestants  in  the  Palatinate  and  elsewhere  were 
making  peace  by  becoming  Roman  Catholics. 
"All  other  churches  of  Europe  are  brought  to 
desolation,  &  our  sinnes,  for  which  the  Lord  be- 
ginnes  allreaddy  to  frowne  upon  us  &  to  cutte  us 
short,  doe  threatne  evill  times  to  be  comminge 
upon  us."  These  words  are  set  down  in  the  Rea 
sons  for  New  England  as  the  second  consideration. 
In  another  part  of  the  same  paper  it  is  urged  that 
the  "  woefull  spectacle  "  of  the  ruin  of  "  Churches 
beyound  the  Seas,"  "  may  teach  us  more  wisdome 
to  avoide  the  Plauge  when  it  is  foreseene  &  not  to 
tarry  as  they  did  till  it  overtake  us."  The  domi 
nance  of  Old  Testament  ideas  is  easily  seen  here. 
But  this  fleeing  from  judgments  that  were  to  fall 
not  on  the  lives  or  possessions  of  men,  but  on 
the  churches  themselves — judgments  of  a  spiritual 
nature,  apprehended  only  by  inference — was  a  re 
finement  of  Hebraism  never  known  to  the  He 
brews.  The  delusion  that  Laud  meant  to  hand 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


199 


over  the  English  church  bound  hand  and  foot  to 
Rome  may  have  made  such  judgments  seem  visi 
bly  imminent. 

VI. 

The  project  for  a  Puritan  colony  languished  at 
first  on  account  of  the  failure  of  the  semi-Puritan, 
semi-commercial  Dorchester  farming  and  fishing 
colony  on  Cape  Ann ;  but  White  of  Dorchester 
continued  to  agitate  the  planting  of  a  colony.  He 
had,  no  doubt,  efficient  help  in  the  proceedings 
against  the  Puritan  clergy.  From  Dorchester  the 
plan  was  carried  to  London,  where  it  soon  became, 
in  the  phrase  of  that  time,  "  vulgar,"  or,  as  we 
should  say,  popular.  Its  countenance  to  the  world, 
and  especially  toward  the  government,  was  that  of 
a  commercial  venture  like  the  planting  of  Virginia, 
but  in  its  heart  it  was  a  religious  enterprise.  In 
March,  1628,  the  Council  for  New  England  gave  to 
the  Massachusetts  projectors  a  patent  for  lands  ex 
tending  from  the  Merrimack  to  the  Charles  and 
three  miles  beyond  each  river.  The  western 
boundary  of  this  tract  was  the  Pacific  Ocean,  for 
holders  of  grants  could  afford  to  be  generous  in 
giving  away  the  interior  of  an  unexplored  conti 
nent  about  which  nothing  was  known  but  that  it 
abounded  in  savages. 

VII. 

In  June  a  small  colony  was  sent  to  Massachu 
setts  under  John  Endecott.  The  next  year  another 


200 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


company  of  emigrants  was  added.  Endecott,  who 
was  one  of  the  patentees,  loved  a  bold  enterprise, 
and  readily  consented  to  take  charge  of  the  fore 
runners  of  the  colony.  He  lacked  the  moderation 
and  saneness  needed  in  a  leader,  and  his  long  career 
in  connection  with  Massachusetts  was  marked  from 
the  beginning  by  mistakes  born  of  a  rash  temper 
and  impulsive  enthusiasm.  Two  of  the  gentlemen 
emigrants  who  had  been  named  by  the  company  in 
London  as  members  of  the  local  Council  were  not 
willing  to  go  to  the  unexpected  lengths  Endecott 
favored  in  the  organization  of  the  Salem  church, 
though  they  were  probably  Puritans  of  a  moderate 
type.  They  held  a  separate  service  with  a  small 
company,  using  the  prayer  book.  Endecott  ap 
pears  to  have  made  no  effort  at  conciliation ;  he 
promptly  shipped  John  and  Samuel  Browne,  pack 
and  prayer  book,  back  to  England.  This  was  pre 
cisely  the  course  that  even  Lord  Bacon  advised  in 
the  treatment  of  schismatics  who  should  contrive 
to  gain  access  to  a  colony,  and  there  is  no  occasion 
for  surprise  that  a  quixotic  enthusiast  like  Endecott 
did  not  hold  broader  views  than  those  of  a  philoso 
pher  of  the  same  period.  But  Endecott's  rash 
action  endangered  the  whole  enterprise,  which  re 
quired  at  this  stage  the  extreme  of  prudence.  The 
alarmed  managers  in  England  contrived  to  settle 
with  the  Brownes  in  private,  and  the  affair  had  no 
other  result  than  to  ruin  Endecott's  reputation  for 
prudence.  Endecott,  however,  went  on  fighting 
the  Lord's  battles  against  the  Apollyons  of  his 


TJie  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


20 1 


fancy,  regardless  of  results.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
he  marched  to  the  den  of  Morton,  the  profligate 
master  of  "  Merry  mount."  In  the  absence  of  Mor 
ton  he  hewed  down  the  profane  Maypole  in  God's 
name,  and  solemnly  dubbed  the  place  Mount  Da- 
gon,  in  memory  of  the  Philistine  idol  that  fell  down 
before  the  ark  of  the  Lord.  At  a  later  period  he 
cut  one  arm  of  the  cross  out  of  the  English  colors 
of  the  Salem  trainband,  in  order  to  convert  the 
Union  Jack  to  Protestantism.  One  of  the  many 
manifestations  of  his  pragmatical  conscience  was 
his  Tartuffian  protection  of  modesty  by  insisting 
that  the  women  of  Salem  should  keep  their  faces 
veiled  at  church.  He  was  also  a  leader  in  the  cru 
sade  of  the  magistrates  against  the  crime  of  wear 
ing  wigs.  A  strange  mixture  of  rashness,  pious 
zeal,  genial  manners,  hot  temper,  and  harsh  big 
otry,  his  extravagances  supply  the  condiment  of 
humor  to  a  very  serious  history — it  is  perhaps  the 
principal  debt  posterity  owes  him.  But  there  was 
a  side  to  his  career  too  serious  to  be  humorous. 
Bold  against  Maypoles  and  prayer  books  and 
women  who  presented  themselves  in  church  im 
modestly  barefaced,  and  in  the  forefront  against 
wigs,  he  was  no  soldier  either  in  prudent  conduct 
or  vigor  of  attack.  When  intrusted  with  the  com 
mand  of  an  expedition  to  demand  satisfaction  of 
the  Pequots,  he  proved  incapable  of  anything  but  a 
campaign  of  exasperation.  When  late  in  life  he 
was  governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  had  become, 
after  the  death  of  Winthrop  and  Dudley,  the  domi- 


202 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Leader 
ship  of 
Winthrop. 


nant  political  leader,  the  putting  to  death  of 
Quakers  left  an  ineffaceable  blot  on  the  history 
of  the  colony  he  had  helped  to  found.  When 
the  colony  was  brought  to  book  in  England  for 
this  seventy,  Endecott  showed  himself  capable  of 
writing  one  of  the  most  cringing  official  letters  on 
record,  as  full  of  cant  as  it  was  of  creeping  ser 
vility.  In  him  we  may  clearly  apprehend  certain 
unamiable  traits  of  Puritanism  and  of  the  early 
seventeenth  century  which  appear  in  his  character 
in  exaggerated  relief.  This  hearty  and  energetic 
bigot  must  have  been  representative  of  a  large, 
though  not  of  the  better,  element  in  Massachusetts 
Puritanism,  for  he  was  chosen  to  the  governorship 
oftener  than  any  other  man  during  the  continuance 
of  the  old  charter  government. 

VIII. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  turn  from  Endecott  to  one 
who  was,  like  him,  a  seventeenth-century  man,  and 
who  did  not  escape  the  scrupulosity  and  ridicu- 
losity  of  Puritanism,  but  whose  amiable  person 
ality,  magnanimity,  and  qualities  of  leadership 
made  him  the  principal  figure  in  the  Puritan  mi 
gration.  Winthrop,  like  two  or  three  of  the  con 
spicuous  actors  in  our  later  history,  owes  his 
distinction  to  the  moral  elevation  of  his  character 
quite  as  much  as  to  his  considerable  mental  gifts ; 
for  character  multiplied  into  sagacity  is  better 
than  genius  for  some  kinds  of  work. 

He  was  a  late  comer  in  the  enterprise.     In  the 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


203 


year  after  Endecott  had  brought  over  a  colony 
composed  mostly  of  servants  of  the  company  and 
of  the  individual  patentees,  a  second  company  of 
emigrants  had  been  sent  over  with  a  commission 
to  Endecott  as  governor  on  the  place,  assisted  by 
a  council.  A  church  had  been  formed  at  Salem. 
Now  set  in  a  larger  agitation  in  favor  of  migration 
to  New  England.  The  course  of  events  in  Eng 
land  was  so  adverse  to  Puritanism  that  those  who 
were  devoted  to  that  purified  church,  which  was 
as  yet  invisible,  except  to  the  eye  of  faith,  began 
to  look  toward  America.  Every  door  for  public 
action  in  state  or  church  was  closed  to  the  Puri 
tans  in  England,  closed  and  barred  by  Courts  of 
High  Commission,  by  the  Star  Chamber,  and  by 
the  Tower.  Into  one  of  the  gloomiest  rooms  of 
the  latter  had  lately  gone,  at  the  arbitrary  com 
mand  of  the  king,  that  high-spirited  martyr  to  con 
stitutional  liberty,  Sir  John  Eliot.  Finding  no  way 
by  which  to  come  out  again  except  a  postern  of 
dishonor,  Eliot  deliberately  chose  to  languish  and 
die  in  prison.  The  almost  hopeless  outlook  at 
home,  the  example  set  by  Endecott's  emigration  to 
New  England  in  1628,  and  by  that  of  Higginson's 
company  in  1629,  perhaps  also  the  ever-active 
propagandism  of  "  Father  White  "  of  Dorchester, 
set  agoing  among  the  Puritans  a  widespread  in 
terest  in  the  subject.  Some  of  the  leading  minds 
thought  it  a  noble  work  to  organize  a  reformed 
church  in  a  new  country,  since,  in  their  view,  the 
Church  of  England,  under  Laud,  had  taken  up  its 


204 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


march  backward.  This  purpose  of  planting  a 
Puritan  church  in  America  now  began  to  take  the 
first  place ;  even  the  conversion  of  the  Indians, 
which  had  been  the  chief  avowed  purpose  hitherto, 
fell  into  the  background. 

The  manuscript  paper  entitled  Reasons  for 
New  England,  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made,  was  widely  but  secretly  circulated,  and  fre 
quently  copied,  after  a  fashion  of  that  time,  pre 
vailing  especially  in  the  case  of  tracts  or  books  of 
a  kind  to  shrink  from  print.  It  contained  argu 
ments  in  favor  of  removing  to  New  England,  with 
answers  to  the  various  objections  made  against 
emigration.  Several  copies  of  these  Reasons,  or 
Considerations,  have  come  down  to  us  in  vari 
ous  handwritings,  and  the  authorship  has  been 
attributed  now  to  one,  now  to  another ;  to  Win- 
throp,  to  White  of  Dorchester,  to  Sir  John  Eliot 
himself.  It  appears  to  have  been  in  its  earliest  form 
the  production  of  Winthrop.  There  were  horse 
back  journeys,  some  of  them  by  night,  made  about 
this  time  for  the  purpose  of  secret  consultation. 

Winthrop,  a  country  gentleman  of  Groton,  in 
Suffolk,  and  an  attorney  in  the  Court  of  Wards, 
was  a  strict  Puritan,  desiring  above  all  a  reformed 
church  and  "  the  ordinances  of  God  in  their 
purity,"  as  the  phrase  of  the  time  went.  Pre 
cocious  in  everything,  and  inclined  to  ideal  aims, 
he  had  been  religious  from  boyhood,  had  married 
at  a  little  over  seventeen  years  of  age,  and  had 
been  made  a  justice  of  the  peace  while  still  very 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


205 


young.  He  studied  divinity,  and  only  the  dis 
suasion  of  friends  kept  him  from  entering  the 
ministry.  Of  judicial  temper,  he  came  to  be  often 
consulted  upon  points  of  conscience,  which  gave 
much  trouble  in  that  age  of  casuistry  and  abound 
ing  scruples.  His  kindly  visits  to  those  who  were 
in  any  trouble  of  spirit  were  highly  prized.  He 
himself  makes  much  of  the  corruptions  of  his  own 
nature  and  of  his  juvenile  aberrancy,  but  gener 
osity  and  purity  of  spirit  like  his  are  born  and 
not  acquired.  His  devoutness,  accompanied  by  a 
habit  of  self-criticism  in  the  presence  of  Infinite 
Justice,  doubtless  gave  additional  vigor  to  his 
virtues.  For  the  rest,  he  was  a  man  of  independent 
estate,  of  prudent  and  conciliatory  carriage,  of  a 
clear  but  not  broad  mind.  What,  as  much  as  any 
thing  else,  fitted  him  for  his  function  was  that  all 
his  virtues  were  cast  in  Puritan  molds  and  all  his 
prejudices  had  a  Puritan  set. 

When  the  question  of  emigration  was  under  dis 
cussion  other  gentlemen  who  thought  of  going 
turned  to  Winthrop  as  the  natural  leader,  declaring 
that  they  would  remain  in  England  if  he  should 
desert  them.  He  was  not  only  the  official  head, 
but  he  was  indeed  the  soul,  of  the  migration  of 
1630,  and  he  went  to  America  confident  of  a  call 
divine  like  that  of  Moses. 

IX. 

It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  that  the  three  primary 
steps  toward  the  establishment  of  free  government 


2O6 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Cradock's 
plan. 


Mass.  Rec 
ords,  July 
29,   1629. 


in  America  were  due  to  Englishmen  who  did  not 
themselves  cross  the  sea.  The  Great  Charter  of 
1618  to  the  Virginia  colony,  and  the  "large  patent" 
to  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims,  were  granted,  as  we 
have  seen,  under  the  leadership  of  Sir  Edwin 
Sandys,  Governor  of  the  Virginia  Company  of 
London.  The  third  of  the  measures  which  placed 
colonial  government  on  a  popular  basis  was  due  to 
the  governor  of  another  corporation  engaged  in 
colony  planting. 

On  the  28th  of  July,  1629,  while  Winthrop  and 
his  friends  were  debating  their  removal  to  New 
England,  Mathew  Cradock,  a  wealthy  and  liberal 
merchant,  who  held  the  office  of  governor,  or,  as 
we  should  say,  president,  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company,  read  in  a  "  general  court  "  or  meeting  of 
the  company  "certain  propositions  conceived  by 
himself,"  as  it  is  carefully  recorded.  He  proposed 
"  that  for  the  advancement  of  the  plantation,  the 
inducing  and  encouraging  persons  of  worth,  qual 
ity  and  rank  to  transplant  themselves  and  families 
thither  and  for  other  weighty  reasons  " — reasons 
which  probably  it  was  not  thought  best  to  spread 
upon  the  records,  but  which  were  the  core  of  the 
whole  matter — for  these  reasons  Cradock  proposed 
to  "  transfer  the  government  of  the  plantation  to 
those  that  shall  inhabit  there,"  and  not  to  continue 
it  in  subordination  to  a  commercial  company  in 
London.  The  sorrows  of  the  Virginia  colony 
under  the  administration  of  Sir  Thomas  Smyth 
and  the  disagreements  between  the  Pilgrims  and 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


their  "  adventurers"  in  London  had  taught 
wholesome  lesson.  Three  years  earlier  Sir  Francis 
Wyatt,  the  best  of  all  the  early  governors  of  Vir 
ginia,  had  set  forth  in  an  elaborate  report  that  the 
principal  cause  of  the  "  slow  proceeding  of  the 
growth  of  the  plantation  "  was  that  the  govern 
ment  had  been  divided  between  England  and  Vir 
ginia.  Massachusetts  escaped  from  this  embar 
rassment. 

X. 

The  evolution  of  the  Massachusetts  government 
may  now  be  traced  through  its  several  stages.  A 
company  was  formed,  partly  of  Dorchester  men, 
but  chiefly  of  residents  of  London.  This  company 
secured  a  patent  to  lands  in  Massachusetts  Bay 
from  the  Council  for  New  England.  The  patentees 
intended  both  a  commercial  enterprise  and  a  Puri 
tan  settlement.  They  sent  Endecott,  one  of  their 
number,  as  agent  or  superintendent,  with  a  com 
pany  of  servants  and  others,  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  migration  of  other  patentees.  In  March,  1628, 
they  secured  a  liberal  charter  from  the  king,  which 
gave  them  the  right  to  establish  in  Massachusetts 
a  government  subordinate  to  the  company.  The 
plan  was  to  settle  a  government  in  the  form  ren 
dered  familiar  by  that  of  the  Virginia  Company. 
The  Massachusetts  Company  in  London  sent  a 
commission  to  Endecott  as  governor  on  the  place, 
subject  to  the  orders  of  the  company  in  England. 
A  council  of  assistants  was  associated  with  him, 


208 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


but  there  was  as  yet  no  provision  for  giving  the 
people  a  voice  in  the  government. 

Winthrop  and  his  coterie  of  gentlemen  appear 
to  have  been  dissatisfied  with  the  prospect  of  liv 
ing  under  a  government  directed  from  England, 
and  thus  subject  to  English  stockholders  and  liable 
to  interference  from  the  court.  Cradock  had  been 
a  leader  and  the  most  liberal  investor  in  the  enter 
prise.  He,  no  doubt,  readily  foresaw  the  great  ad 
vance  that  the  colony  would  make  if  Winthrop  and 
his  friends  should  embark  their  lives  and  fortunes 
in  it,  and  he  may  have  intended  to  emigrate  him 
self.  The  annulling  of  the  charter  of  the  Virginia 
Company  on  frivolous  pretexts  had  shown  how 
easily  the  Massachusetts  charter  might  meet  the 
same  fate  in  a  reign  far  more  devoted  to  arbitrary 
government  than  that  of  James  and  entirely  hostile 
to  Puritanism.  There  could  hardly  be  a  doubt 
that  the  charter  would  be  revoked  as  soon  as  its 
projectors  should  develop  their  true  purpose  be 
fore  the  all-observing  eyes  of  Laud,  who  was  now 
rising  rapidly  to  dominant  influence  in  the  govern 
ment.  It  was  at  this  juncture  probably  that  Cra 
dock  conceived  his  ingenious  plan.  He  would  re 
sign  his  place  and  have  the  officers  of  the  company 
chosen  from  gentlemen  about  to  embark  for  the 
plantation.  The  charter  prescribed  no  place  of 
assembling  to  the  company,  which  had  been  left 
free  apparently  to  make  its  headquarters  at  its 
birthplace  in  Dorchester  or  at  its  new  home  in 
London.  It  was  also  free  to  meet  in  any  other 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


209 


place.  The  meetings  of  the  company  might  there 
fore  be  held  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  Puritan 
ism  of  its  proceedings  would  attract  less  attention. 
The  governor  and  other  officers  would  then  be 
chosen  in  the  colony ;  the  company  and  the  colony 
would  thus  be  merged  into  one,  and  the  charter 
transported  to  Massachusetts  would  perhaps  be 
beyond  the  reach  of  writs  and  judgments. 

XL 

No  doubt  the  influential  company  of  friends 
who  were  debating  a  removal  to  New  England 
were  informed  of  Cradock's  proposition  before  it 
was  mooted  in  the  company  on  the  28th  of  July. 
The  plan  was  probably  thought  of  in  consequence 
of  their  objection  to  emigration  under  the  Virginia 
system.  Cradock's  proposition  was  at  least  the 
turning  point  of  their  decision.,  Nearly  a  month 
later,  on  the  26th  of  August,  the  leaders  of  Win- 
throp's  party  assembled  to  the  number  of  twelve, 
at  Cambridge,  and  solemnly  pledged  themselves, 
"  in  the  presence  of  God  who  is  the  searcher  of  all 
hearts,"  "to  pass  the  Seas  (under  God's  protection) 
to  inhabit  and  continue  in  New  England."  The 
preamble  states  the  object  of  this  migration.  It 
was  not  civil  liberty,  the  end  that  political  Puri 
tans  had  most  in  view,  and  certainly  there  is  no 
hint  of  a  desire  for  religious  liberty.  Even  the 
conversion  of  the  Indian  is  not  uppermost  in  this 
solemn  resolve.  "  God's  glory  and  the  church's 
good  "  are  the  words  used.  This  has  the  true  ring 
15 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  Cam 
bridge 
agree 
ment. 


1629. 


210 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Removal 
of  the 
charter. 

1629. 


Note  8. 


of  the  Puritan  churchman.  The  whole  pledge  is 
couched  in  language  befitting  men  who  feel  them 
selves  engaged  in  a  religious  enterprise  of  the 
highest  importance. 

This  pledge  contained  a  notable  proviso.  The 
signers  agreed  to  emigrate  only  on  condition  that 
"  the  whole  government  together  with  the  patent 
for  said  plantation "  should  be  transferred  and 
legally  established  in  the  colony  by  order  of  the 
General  Court  of  the  Company,  and  that  this 
should  be  done  before  the  last  of  the  ensuing 
month.  There  was  opposition  to  the  removal  of 
the  government,  and  this  peremptory  condition 
was  necessary.  Three  days  later,  after  a  debate, 
the  company  voted  that  its  government  should  be 
transferred  to  Massachusetts  Bay., 

On  the  2oth  of  October  Cradock  resigned  his 
governorship  and  Winthrop  was  chosen  in  his 
stead.  Puritan  ministers  were  at  once  elected  to 
the  freedom  of  the  company,  in  order  that  its  pro 
ceedings  might  not  want  the  sanction  of  prayer, 
The  next  year  the  charter  crossed  the  wide  seas, 
and  in  1630  a  court  of  the  company  was  held  in 
the  wilderness  at  Charlestown.  But  a  subordinate 
government  "  for  financial  affairs  only  "  was  main 
tained  in  London,  with  Cradock,  the  former  presi 
dent,  at  the  head.  This  seems  to  have  been  an 
effectual  blind,  and  probably  the  king's  govern 
ment  did  not  know  of  the  flight  of  the  charter 
until  the  Privy  Council  in  1634  summoned  Cra 
dock  to  bring  that  document  to  the  Council  Board. 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


21  I 


Thomas  Morton,  the  expelled  master  of  Merry- 
mount,  writes  of  the  wrath  of  Laud,  who  had  been 
foiled  by  this  pretty  ruse :  "  My  lord  of  Canter 
bury  and  my  lord  privy  seal,  having  caused  all  Mr. 
Cradock's  letters  to  be  viewed  and  his  apology  for 
the  brethren  particularly  heard,  protested  against 
him  and  Mr.  Humfries  that  they  were  a  couple  of 
imposturous  knaves."  Laud  had  thought  to  crush 
the  government  of  Massachusetts  by  destroying 
the  company,  whose  office  remained  in  London, 
with  Cradock  still  apparently  its  head.  The  arch 
bishop  found  too  late  that  he  had  eagerly  pounced 
upon  a  dummy.  He  devised  many  things  after 
ward  to  achieve  his  purpose,  but  the  charter  re 
mained  over  seas. 

XII. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  our  later  age,  the  re 
moval  of  the  charter  government  to  America  is  the 
event  of  chief  importance  in  this  migration  of 
Winthrop's  company.  The  ultimate  effect  of  this 
brilliant  stroke  was  so  to  modify  a  commercial  cor 
poration  that  it  became  a  colonial  government  as 
independent  as  possible  of  control  from  England. 
By  the  admission  of  a  large  number  of  the  colo 
nists  to  be  freemen — that  is,  to  vote  as  stock 
holders  in  the  affairs  of  the  company,  which  was 
now  the  colony  itself,  and  a  little  later  by  the  de 
velopment  of  a  second  chamber — the  government 
became  representative. 

But  we  may  not  for  a  moment  conceive  that 


CHAP.  IV. 

Compare 
Palfrey,  i, 
371,  and 
Dearie's 
note  in 
Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Proc. 
1869,  p. 
185. 


Hutchin- 
son's  Hist. 
Mass.,  p. 
31- 


212 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Book  II. 

The  main 
purpose. 


Influence 
of  Plym 
outh. 


the  colonists  understood  the  importance  of  their 
act  in  the  light  of  its  consequences.  In  their 
minds  the  government  was  merely  a  setting  and 
support  for  the  church.  The  founding  of  a  new 
church  establishment,  after  what  they  deemed  the 
primitive  model,  was  the  heart  of  the  enterprise. 
This  is  shown  in  many  words  uttered  by  the  chief 
actors,  and  it  appears  in  strong  relief  in  an  inci 
dent  that  occurred  soon  after  the  arrival  of  Win- 
throp's  company.  Isaac  Johnston,  the  wealthiest 
man  of  the  party,  succumbed  to  disease  and  hard 
ship,  but  "  he  felt  much  rejoiced  at  his  death  that 
the  Lord  had  been  pleased  to  keep  his  eyes  open 
so  long  as  to  see  one  church  of  Christ  gathered 
before  his  death."  Here  we  have  the  Puritan  pas 
sion  for  a  church  whose  discipline  and  services 
should  realize  their  ideals — a  passion  that  in  the 
stronger  men  suffered  no  abatement  in  the  midst 
of  the  inevitable  pestilence  and  famine  that  were 
wont  to  beset  newly  arrived  colonists  in  that  time. 

XIII. 

One  salient  fact  in  the  history  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Bay  colony  is  the  dominant  influence  of  the 
example  of  Plymouth.  The  Puritans  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  colony  were  not  Separatists.  No  one  had 
been  more  severe  in  controversy  with  the  Separa 
tists  than  some  of  the  Puritans  who  remained  in  the 
Church  of  England.  They  were  eagerly  desirous 
not  to  be  confounded  with  these  schismatics. 
When  the  great  migration  of  1630  took  place,  the 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


213 


emigrants  published  a  pathetic  farewell,  protest 
ing  with  the  sincerity  of  homesick  exiles  their 
attachment  to  the  Church  of  England,  "ever  ac 
knowledging  that  such  hope  and  part  as  we  have 
obtained  in  the  common  salvation  we  have  received 
in  her  bosom  and  sucked  at  her  breasts." 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  these  Puritans  did 
not  agree  among  themselves.  Puritanism  was  of 
many  shades.  There  were  some,  like  the  Brownes 
whom  Endecott  sent  out  of  the  colony,  that  were 
even  unwilling  to  surrender  the  prayer  book.  The 
greater  part  of  the  earlier  Puritans  had  desired  to 
imitate  the  Presbyterianism  of  Scotland  and  Ge 
neva,  and  in  Elizabeth's  time  they  had  organized 
presbyteries.  Nothing  seemed  more  probable  be 
forehand  than  the  revival  in  New  England  of  the 
presbyteries  of  the  days  of  Cartwright.  But  what 
happened  was  unexpected  even  by  the  Puritans. 
The  churches  of  Massachusetts  were  formed  on 
the  model  of  John  Robinson's  Independency. 

There  must  have  been  a  certain  exhilarant  reac 
tion  in  the  minds  of  the  Puritans  when  at  last  they 
were  clear  of  the  English  coast  and  free  from  the 
authority  that  had  put  so  many  constraints  upon 
them.  There  were  preachings  and  expoundings 
by  beloved  preachers  with  no  fear  of  pursuivants. 
The  new  religious  freedom  was  delightful  to  intoxi 
cation.  "  Every  day  for  ten  weeks  together," 
writes  one  passenger,  they  had  preaching  and  ex 
position.  On  one  ship  the  watches  were  set  by  the 
Puritan  captain  with  the  accompaniment  of  psalm- 


CHAP.  IV. 


Differ 
ences 
among  the 
Puritans. 


Effect  of 
emigra 
tion. 


Roger 
Clap's 
Memoirs, 
40. 


214 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


BOOK  II. 


Note  9. 


Rise  of  the 
Congrega 
tional 
form  in 
New  Eng 
land. 


singing.  Those  who  all  their  lives  long  had  made 
outward  and  inward  compromises  between  their 
ultimate  convictions  and  their  obligations  to  antag 
onistic  authority  found  themselves  at  length  utter 
ly  free.  It  was  not  that  action  was  freed  from  the 
restraint  of  fear,  so  much  as  that  thought  itself  was 
freed  from  the  necessity  for  politic  compromises. 
Every  ship  thus  became  a  seminary  for  discussion. 
Every  man  now  indulged  in  the  unwonted  privi 
lege  of  thinking  his  bottom  thought.  The  ten 
dency  to  swing  to  an  extreme  is  all  but  irresistible 
in  the  minds  of  men  thus  suddenly  liberated.  To 
such  enthusiasts  the  long-deferred  opportunity  to 
actualize  ultimate  ideals  in  an  ecclesiastical  vacuum 
would  be  accepted  with  joy.  What  deductions 
such  companies  would  finally  make  from  the  hints 
in  the  New  Testament  was  uncertain.  The  only 
sure  thing  was  that  every  vestige  of  that  which 
they  deemed  objectionable  in  the  English  church 
would  be  repressed,  obliterated,  in  their  new  or 
ganization. 

With  the  evils  and  abuses  of  the  English  church 
more  and  more  exaggerated  in  their  thoughts,  the 
sin  of  separation  readily  came  to  seem  less  heinous 
than  before.  There  was  no  longer  any  necessity 
for  professing  loyalty  to  the  church  nor  any 
further  temptation  to  think  ill  of  those  at  Plym 
outh,  who,  like  themselves,  had  suffered  much  to 
avoid  what  both  Separatists  and  Puritans  deemed 
unchristian  practices.  A  common  creed  and  com 
mon  sufferings,  flight  from  the  same  oppression  to 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


215 


find  refuge  in  what  was  henceforth  to  be  a  com 
mon  country,  drew  them  to  sympathy  and  affection 
for  their  forerunners  at  Plymouth.  The  Plymouth 
people  were  not  backward  to  send  friendly  help 
to  the  newcomers.  The  influence  of  the  physician 
sent  from  Plymouth  to  Endecott's  party  in  the  pre 
vailing  sickness  soon  persuaded  the  naturally  rad 
ical  Endecott  to  the  Plymouth  view  of  church  gov 
ernment.  Winthrop's  associates,  or  the  greater 
part  of  them,  drifted  in  the  same  direction,  to  their 
own  surprise,  no  doubt.  There  was  a  lack  of  uni 
formity  in  the  early  Massachusetts  churches  and 
some  clashing  of  opinion.  Some  ministers  left  the 
colony  dissatisfied  ;  one  or  more  of  the  churches 
long  retained  Presbyterian  forms,  and  some  stanch 
believers  in  presbyterial  government  lamented 
long  afterward  that  New  England  ecclesiastical 
forms  were  not  those  of  the  Calvinistic  churches 
of  Europe.  But  the  net  result  was  that  Robin- 
sonian  independency  became  the  established  re 
ligion  in  New  England,  whence  it  was  transplanted 
to  England  during  the  Commonwealth,  and  later 
became  the  prevailing  discipline  among  English 
dissenters. 

Thus  the  church  discipline  and  the  form  of 
government  in  Massachusetts  borrowed  much  from 
Plymouth,  but  the  mildness  and  semi-toleration — 
the  "toleration  of  tolerable  opinions" — which  Rob 
inson  had  impressed  on  the  Pilgrims  was  not  so 
easily  communicated  to  their  new  neighbors  who 
had  been  trained  in  another  school. 


CHAP.  IV. 


Cotton  to 
Salonstall 
in  Hutch. 
Papers. 


Hubbard's 
Hist,  of 
New  Eng., 
117. 


Note  10. 


216 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Book  II. 


Note  i, 
page  191. 


Note  2, 
page  193. 


Note  3, 
page  199. 


Note  4, 
page  204. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

Morton's  settlement  has  become  the  subject  of  a  literature  of 
its  own,  and  of  some  rather  violent  and  amusing  discussion  even 
in  our  times.  Morton's  New  English  Canaan  has  been  edited  by 
Mr.  C.  F.  Adams  for  the  Prince  Society.  His  defensive  account 
of  himself  leaves  the  impression  that  the  author  was  just  the  sort 
of  clever  and  reckless  rake  who  is  most  dangerous  to  settlements 
in  contact  with  savages,  and  who  might  be  expelled  neck  and 
heels  from  a  frontier  community  holding  no  scruples  of  a  Puritan 
sort.  The  Royal  Proclamation  in  Rymer's  Foedera,  xvii,  416 
(and  Hazard's  State  Papers,  i,  151),  1622,  sets  forth  the  evil  of 
the  sale  of  arms  to  the  savages,  but  it  was  leveled  at  earlier 
offenders  than  Morton.  Compare  Sainsbury's  Calendar,  Septem 
ber  29  and  November  24,  1630,  pp.  120,  122.  There  are  also 
references,  more  or  less  extended,  to  Morton  in  the  Massachu 
setts  Records,  Winthrop's  Journal,  Bradford's  Plimouth  Planta 
tion,  Dudley's  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln  in  Young's 
Chronicles  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  other  early  accounts. 

Abbott's  account  of  Laud's  rise,  Rush  worth,  i,  440,  is  traced 
with  a  bitter  pen,  no  doubt,  but  the  student  Laud,  as  Abbott 
draws  him,  is  so  much  like  his  later  self  that  one  can  not  but 
believe  that  the  description  of  him  picking  quarrels  with  the  public 
readers  and  carrying  information  against  them  to  the  bishop  has 
a  basis  of  fact. 

Rush  worth,  writing  under  the  later  date  of  1637,  says :  "  The 
severe  Censures  in  Star  Chamber,  and  the  greatness  of  the  Fines, 
and  the  rigorous  Proceedings  to  impose  Ceremonies,  the  sus 
pending  and  silencing  Multitudes  of  Ministers,  for  not  reading  in 
the  Church  the  Book  for  Sports  to  be  exercised  on  the  Lord's 
day,  caused  many  of  the  Nation,  both  Ministers  and  others,  to 
sell  their  Estates,  and  to  set  Sail  for  New  England  (a  late  Planta 
tion  in  America),  where  they  hold  a  Plantation  by  Patent  from 
the  King."  Part  II,  vol.  i,  p.  410. 

"We  trust  you  will  not  be  unmindful  of  the  main  end  of  our 
Plantation,  by  endeavouring  to  bring  the  Indians  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel."  Cradock's  letter  to  Endecott,  February  16,  1629, 
Young's  Chronicle,  133;  also  the  official  letter,  ibid.,  page  142, 
where  the  "propagation  of  the  Gospel"  among  whites  and 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


217 


Indians  is  the  "aim."  The  Royal  Charter  itself  declared  that 
"  to  win  and  invite  the  natives  of  the  country  to  the  knowledge 
and  obedience  of  the  only  true  God  and  Saviour  of  mankind  .  .  . 
is  the  principal  end  of  this  Plantation."  (A  similar  provision  was 
inserted  in  the  Connecticut  Charter  in  1662,  in  imitation  of  that 
of  Massachusetts.)  The  common  seal  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony,  sent  over  in  1629,  bore  an  Indian  with  the  inscription, 
"  Come  over  and  help  us."  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts, 
155,  Instructions  to  Endecott.  The  paper  of  "Reasons,"  attrib 
uted  to  Winthrop,  keeps  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  in  view, 
but  it  is  blended  with  that  which  was  in  his  mind  the  main  end, 
the  founding  of  a  Puritan  church.  The  first  paragraph  reads, 
"  It  will  be  a  service  to  the  Church  of  great  consequence  to  carry 
the  Gospel!  into  those  parts  of  the  world,  to  helpe  on  the 
comminge  of  the  fullnesse  of  the  Gentiles,  &  to  raise  a  Bulworke 
against  the  kingdome  of  Ante-Christ  which  the  Jesuites  labour  to 
reare  up  in  those  parts."  Life  and  Letters  of  Winthrop,  i,  309. 
The  copy  of  this  paper  in  Sir  John  Eliot's  handwriting  has  a 
preamble  written  in  a  nervous  style  that  may  well  be  Eliot's  own. 
This  preamble  goes  back  to  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  as  a 
main  purpose.  The  Antapologia  of  T.  Edwards,  1644,  declares 
that  White  of  Dorchester  and  others  had  the  conversion  of  the 
Indians  in  view  in  promoting  emigration  to  New  England. 
Edwards  says,  page  41,  that  the  establishing  of  Congregational 
churches  "  was  not  in  the  thoughts  of  them  that  were  the  first 
movers  in  that  or  of  the  ministers  that  were  sent  over  in  the 
beginning."  The  statement  is  quite  too  strong,  but  the  ecclesi 
astical  purpose  seems  to  have  grown  rapidly  when  the  number 
of  emigrants  revealed  the  greatness  of  the  opportunity. 


Cotton  Mather  says,  Magnalia,  Book  II,  chap,  iv,  3,  that 
throp  was  made  a  justice  at  eighteen,  but  Mather's  account  of  any 
thing  marvelous  needs  support.  Winthrop  held  his  first  court 
at  Groton  Hall  several  months  after  he  had  attained  his  majority. 
Life  and  Letters,  i,  62.  Compare  page  223  of  the  same  volume. 

Of  his  election  to  the  governorship  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  "  The 
onely  thinge  that  I  have  comforte  of  in  it  is,  that  heerby  I  have 
assurance  that  my  charge  is  of  the  Lorde  £  that  he  hath  called 
me  to  this  worke."  Life  and  Letters,  i,  340. 

The  government  of  the  colony  under  Endecott  was  substan 
tially  that  prescribed  for  "  particular  plantations  "  in  the  general 
order  of  the  Virginia  Company  at  the  time  the  charter  for  the 


CHAP.  IV. 


Note  5, 
page  204. 


Note  6, 
page  205. 


Note  7, 
page  208. 


218 


The  Puritan  Migration. 


Pilgrim  colony  was  granted,  and  like  that  which  was  formed  at 
Plymouth  under  the  Compact.  The  Massachusetts  form  may 
have  been  borrowed  from  Plymouth.  This  may  be  considered 
the  primary  form  of  colony  government  in  the  scheme  of  the 
Virginia  Company.  The  plan  antedates  the  formation  of  the 
Virginia  Company  by  at  least  twenty  years,  for  it  was  a  form 
proposed  by  Ralegh  when,  in  1 587,  he  organized  his  colony  under 
the  title :  "  The  Governor  and  Assistants  of  the  city  of  Ralegh 
in  Virginia."  The  secondary  form  of  government  was  that  pre 
scribed  for  Virginia  in  the  charter  of  1618,  which  added  a  lower 
house  elective  by  the  people.  This  fully  developed  government 
could  come  only  when  the  population  had  become  large  enough 
to  render  a  representative  system  possible. 

It  has  been  maintained  by  several  writers  that  the  charter  had 
been  worded  with  a  view  to  removal.  See,  for  example,  Palfrey's 
New  England,  i,  307.  But  a  paper  read  before  the  Massachu 
setts  Historical  Society,  and  printed  in  the  Proceedings  for  De 
cember,  1869,  by  the  late  Charles  Deane,  shows  that  such  a  pre 
sumption  is  groundless.  In  calling  the  subordinate  government 
of  Endecott  "  London's  Plantation  in  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New 
England,"  the  company  showed  that  it  proposed  to  keep  its  head 
quarters  in  London.  It  is  open  to  question,  however,  whether 
Deane  does  not  go  too  far  in  denying  that  the  charter  gave 
authority  for  the  transfer.  In  that  technical  age  the  letter  of  the 
instrument  would  probably  be  counted  more  conclusive  than  at 
present,  and  the  evidence  of  the  dockets  would  have  less  weight. 
The  removal  of  the  government  was  not  one  of  the  charges  made 
in  the  quo  warranto  proceedings  against  the  company.  On  the 
main  question  compare  also  the  very  significant  treatment  of  the 
subject  by  Winthrop  in  his  paper  on  Arbitrary  Government,  Life 
and  Letters,  ii,  443,  where  he  expressly  says  that  it  was  intended 
to  have  the  chief  government  in  England,  "  and  with  much  diffi 
culty  we  gott  it  abscinded."  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
exercise  of  governmental  functions  by  a  commercial  corporation 
was  not  a  novel  spectacle  in  that  age.  In  1620  the  English  and 
Dutch  East  India  Companies,  after  having  been  at  war  while  the 
two  nations  were  allies,  concluded  a  treaty  of  peace.  No  doubt 
the  exercise  of  such  powers  by  trading  companies  had  been  made 
familiar  by  the  mingling  of  the  functions  of  government  with 
those  of  commerce  by  the  merchants  of  the  Hanse  cities.  The 
East  India  and  the  Hudson  Bay  Companies  continued  to  exercise 
territorial  jurisdiction  until  a  very  recent  period. 


The  Great  Puritan  Exodus. 


219 


This  rebound  from  their  previous  attitude  of  compromise  is 
well  exemplified  in  the  church  covenant  adopted  at  Dorchester, 
Mass.,  in  1636,  under  the  lead  of  Richard  Mather,  which  con 
tains  these  words :  "  We  do  likewise  promise  by  his  Grace 
assisting  us,  to  endeavour  the  establishing  amongst  ourselves  all 
His  Holy  Ordinances  which  He  hath  appointed  for  His  church 
here  on  Earth,  .  .  .  opposing  to  the  utmost  of  our  power  whatso 
ever  is  contrary  thereto  and  bewailing  from  our  Hearts  our  own 
neglect  hereof  in  former  times  and  our  poluting  ourselves  therein 
with  any  Sinful  Invention  of  men."  Blake's  Annals  of  Dorchester. 
Robinson  of  Leyden,  in  his  Justification  of  Separation,  1610,  de 
clared  that  the  Puritans  would  soon  separate  if  they  might  have 
the  magistrates'  license ;  and  Backus,  who  quotes  the  passage  (i, 
pp.  2,  3),  remarks  on  the  confirmation  which  the  history  of  Massa 
chusetts  gives  to  Robinson's  theory  of  conformity. 

In  his  Way  of  the  Churches  Cleared,  controversial  necessity 
drove  Cotton  to  assert  that  Plymouth  had  small  share  in  fixing 
the  ecclesiastical  order  of  Massachusetts,  but  he  is  compelled  to 
admit  its  influence.  "  And  though  it  bee,"  he  says,  "  very  likely, 
that  some  of  the  first  commers  might  helpe  their  Theory  by  hear 
ing  and  discerning  their  practice  at  Plymmouth :  yet  therein  the 
Scripture  is  fulfilled,  '  The  Kingdome  of  Heaven  is  like  unto 
leaven,'  "  etc.,  pp,  16,  17. 


CHAP.  IV. 

Note  9, 
page  214. 


Note  10, 
page  215. 


BOOK    III. 

CENTRIFUGAL   FORCES   IN   COLONY-PLANTING. 


CHAPTER    THE    FIRST. 
THE   CA  THOLIC  MIGRA  TION. 

I. 

AT  every  new  stage  in  the  history  of  the  Amer 
ican  settlement,  we  are  afresh  reminded  that  colo 
nies  are  planted  by  the  uneasy.  The  discontent 
that  comes  from  poverty  and  financial  reverse,  that 
which  is  born  of  political  unrest,  and  that  which 
has  no  other  cause  than  feverish  thirst  for  novelty 
and  hazardous  adventure,  had  each  a  share  in  im 
pelling  Englishmen  to  emigrate.  But  in  the  seven 
teenth  century  religion  was  the  dominant  concern 
—one  might  almost  say  the  dominant  passion — of 
the  English  race,  and  it  supplied  much  the  most 
efficient  motive  to  colonization.  Not  only  did  it 
propel  men  to  America,  but  it  acted  as  a  distrib 
uting  force  on  this  side  of  the  sea,  producing  sec 
ondary  colonies  by  expelling  from  a  new  plantation 
the  discontented  and  the  persecuted  to  make  fresh 
breaks  in  the  wilderness  for  new  settlements.  Con 
necticut  and  Rhode  Island  were  secondary  plant 
ings  of  this  kind.  Religious  differences  also  made 


220 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


221 


twain  the  Chesapeake  region,  the  first  home  of  the  ( 
English  in  America,  one  of  the  two  rival  colonies 
being  intolerantly    Protestant,   the   other   a   home 
for  Catholic  refugees. 

II. 

George  Calvert,  the  first  Baron  Baltimore,  who  j  character 

of  George 

projected  the  Maryland  colony  and  left  it  to  his  caivert. 
son  to  carry  forward,  belonged  to  the  order  of 
men  who  are  shrewd  without  being  creative — men 
of  sagacity  as  differentiated  from  men  of  ideas. 
The  man  in  whose  mind  there  is  a  ferment  of  origi 
nal  ideas  has  theories  to  promulgate  or  expound. 
Sagacity  has  small  necessity  for  speech — its  very 
reticence  gives  an  advantage  in  the  conduct  of 
affairs.  The  parliamentary  antagonist  and  political 
rival  who  confronted  Calvert  was  no  other  than 
our  old  acquaintance  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  of  the 
Virginia  Company.  Calvert  and  Sandys  were 
alike  men  of  rare  accomplishments,  and  both  were 
interested  in  schemes  for  colonization ;  otherwise 
they  were  antipodal.  Sandys  was  a  statesman  of 
advanced  ideas,  creative,  liberal,  and  original,  fit 
ted  to  be  the  founder  of  representative  govern 
ment  in  the  English  colonies.  In  that  age  of  worn 
and  brittle  institutions  it  was  not  deemed  wholly 
safe  to  suffer  so  robust  a  thinker  as  Sandys  to  be 
always  at  large,  and  it  was  one  of  Cal vert's  most 
difficult  duties,  as  the  king's  secretary  and  chosen 
intermediary,  to  explain  to  Parliament  why  its 
leader  was  under  restraint.  Sandys,  as  we  have 
already  said,  was  described  as  "  right-handed  to 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


every  great  employment " ;  when  Calvert  came 
upon  the  scene,  he  was  aptly  characterized  as  "  a 
forward  and  knowing  person  in  matters  relating  to 
the  state."  The  phrase  denotes,  perhaps,  clever 
adroitness  within  the  limits  of  that  mediocrity  which 
in  those  perilous  times  was  a  safeguard  to  the  man 
who  ventured  into  politics.  After  having  started 
well  at  court,  Sandys  had  fallen  into  irretrievable 
disfavor  by  his  resolute  advocacy  of  the  liberties 
of  his  countrymen.  The  message  to  the  Virginia 
Company,  already  recited,  "  Choose  the  devil,  but 
not  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,"  expressed  the  depth  of  the 
king's  antipathy.  But  if  Sandys  seemed  to  the 
king  a  devil,  Calvert  became  for  him  a  convenient 
angel.  Notions  about  human  rights  and  the  liberty 
of  Parliament  did  not  obstruct  Calvert's  career. 
Not  that  he  was  a  man  to  prove  unfaithful  to  his 
convictions,  as  did  his  bosom  friend  Wentworth, 
or  to  suppress  liberal  opinions  in  order  to  smooth 
an  ascending  pathway,  as  did  his  great  contem 
porary  Bacon.  Calvert  played  a  far  simpler  part 
and  one  less  dishonorable.  It  was  his  fortune  to 
be  a  man  of  facile  mind,  naturally  reverential 
toward  authority.  The  principles  enunciated  by 
his  sovereign  and  the  measures  by  which  those  in 
power  sought  to  attain  the  end  in  view  were  pretty 
sure  to  seem  laudable  or  at  least  excusable  to  him. 
Such  a  mind  can  not  be  called  scrupulous,  neither 
is  it  consciously  dishonest.  The  quality  most 
highly  esteemed  at  the  court  of  James  was 
fidelity,  unswerving  devotion  to  the  interests  of 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


223 


the  king  and  of  one's  friends.  And  this,  the 
dominant  virtue  of  his  time  and  of  his  class — this 
honor  of  a  courtier — Calvert  possessed  in  a  high 
degree ;  it  is  a  standard  by  which  he  has  a  right 
to  be  judged.  To  a  French  ambassador  he  seemed 
an  honorable,  sensible,  courteous,  well-intentioned 
man,  devoted  to  the  interests  of  England,  but  with 
out  consideration  or  influence. 

Whatever  his  lack  of  influence  in  councils  of 
state,  Calvert's  fidelity,  useful  abilities,  and  many 
accomplishments  won  the  friendship  of  Jame^,  and 
in  that  lavish  reign  when  all  the  fairy  stories  came 
true  at  a  court  which  was  "  like  a  romance  of 
knight  errantry,"  as  the  Spanish  minister  declared, 
the  favor  of  the  king  was  sure  to  result  in  good 
fortune  to  the  favorite.  From  being  secretary  to 
Burleigh,  Calvert  rose  to  be  principal  Secretary  of 
State,  was  knighted,  and  at  last  ennobled.  Grants 
of  estates  in  Ireland  and  of  great  unexplored  tracts 
of  territory  in  the  wilderness  of  America,  pensions, 
sinecure  offices,  grants  of  money  out  of  increased 
customs  fees,  and  presents  from  those  who  had 
ends  to  serve  at  court,  were  the  means  by  which 
a  successful  courtier  bettered  his  estate,  and  by 
some  or  all  of  these  Secretary  Calvert  thrived. 
That  he  did  thrive  is  proved  by  the  great  sum  he 
was  able  to  lose  in  his  futile  attempt  to  plant  a 
colony  in  Newfoundland.  It  was  believed  that  he 
had  accepted  a  share  of  the  money  dispensed  lav 
ishly  in  presents  and  pensions  to  English  courtiers 
by  Spain,  but  this  Calvert  denied,  and  one  can  be- 


CHAP.  I. 


Calvert's 
rise. 


Note  i. 


224 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 
Note  2. 


The  col 
ony  of 
Avalon. 


Cal.  S.  P. 
America, 
pp.  25,  26, 
March  16, 
1620. 


lieve  that  a  man  of  his  fidelity  to  king  and  country 
would  be  able  to  resist  a  temptation  to  which 
others  succumbed. 

ill. 

Calvert  was  very  early  interested  in  coloniza 
tion.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Company 
in  1609,  and  later  one  of  the  councilors  for  New 
England.  In  1620  he  was  one  of  a  commission  ap 
pointed  to  settle  the  affairs  of  a  Scotch  company 
for  colonizing  Newfoundland,  and  in  the  next  year 
he  dispatched  his  first  colony  to  the  southeastern 
peninsula  of  that  island  which  he  had  bought  from 
Sir  William  Vaughan.  In  this  latter  year  (1621)  he 
secured  a  grant  of  the  whole  vast  island,  but  in 
1622  he  accepted  a  re-grant  of  the  peninsula  alone, 
and  this  became  his  first  proprietary  colony.  Cap 
tain  Whitbourne's  pamphlet  on  Newfoundland  was 
just  then  circulating  gratuitously  by  the  aid  of  col 
lections  made  in  the  churches  with  the  sanction  of 
royal  authority.  It  described  a  Newfoundland  of 
Edenic  fruitfulness.  Even  cool-headed  statesmen 
like  Calvert  appear  to  have  been  captivated  by  the 
stories  of  this  veteran  seaman  and  wreather-beaten 
romancer.  Calvert  called  his  new  province  Avalon. 
The  name  signifies  the  land  of  apples— that  is,  the 
fruitful  country.  In  old  British  mythology  it  was 
the  paradise  of  the  blessed,  the  island  in  the  west 
ern  seas  to  which  King  Arthur  was  translated  in 
the  famous  legend.  This  name  of  promise  suited 
the  situation  of  the  new  island  state,  and  fitted  well 
the  enthusiastic  tales  of  Whitbourne  and  the 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


22$ 


groundless  hopes  of  Calvert.  The  bleak  New 
foundland  coast  had  already  blossomed  with  fanci 
ful  names ;  there  was  the  Bay  of  Plesaunce  and 
the  Bay  of  Flowers,  Robin  Hood's  Bay  and  the 
River  of  Bonaventure  ;  there  was  the  Harbor  of 
Formosa  and  the  Harbor  of  Heartsease.  Avalon, 
the  earthly  paradise,  was  but  the  complement  of 
these. 

IV. 

Sir  George  Calvert  probably  drafted  with  his 
own  hand — the  hand  of  an  expert  and  accom 
plished  man  of  the  court — the  charter  of  April  7, 
1623,  that  conferred  on  him  an  authority  little 
short  of  sovereignty  over  his  new  territory.  This 
masterpiece  of  dexterous  charter-making  afforded 
a  model  for  other  proprietary  charters,  and  Cal 
vert  himself  bettered  it  but  little  in  the  Maryland 
charter  of  a  later  date.  The  ambiguous  passages 
in  the  Maryland  charter,  which  have  been  ac 
counted  evidence  of  a  design  to  make  way  for  the 
toleration  or  even  the  possible  dominance  of  Ro 
man  Catholicism,  appear  already  in  the  charter  of 
Avalon.  Was  the  colony  of  1621  or  its  charter  of 
1623  intended  to  supply  a  refuge,  if  one  should 
be  needed,  for  Englishmen  of  the  Catholic  faith  ? 
The  question  is  not  easily  answered.  The  primary 
design  of  the  Avalon  colony  wras,  no  doubt,  to 
better  the  fortunes  of  Sir  George  Calvert  and  to 
lift  him  and  his  successors  into  the  authority  and 
dignity  of  counts-palatine  in  the  New  World.  But 
there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that,  before  the  char- 

16 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  3. 


The  char 
ter  of 

Avalon. 


Note  4. 


226 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Note  5. 


Calvert's 
conver 
sion. 


Petition 
in  Rush- 
worth, 
Part  I,  i, 
141.    Com 
pare  Neal, 
Part  II, 
c.  ii. 


ter  of  1623  was  granted,  Secretary  Calvert  was 
already  a  Catholic,  secretly  or  latently,  if  not 
overtly.  His  charter  of  Avalon  naturally  left  open 
a  door  for  the  toleration  of  the  faith  to  which  he 
was  already  attached,  or  toward  which  he  was 
tending. 

v. 

Calvert's  conversion  was  almost  inevitable.  He 
favored  the  project  for  the  Spanish  match,  and  he 
was,  like  some  other  courtiers,  under  the  influence 
of  Gondomar,  a  consummate  master  of  intrigue. 
He  was  bound  by  ties  of  friendship,  and  later  by 
the  marriage  of  his  son,  to  Lord  Arundel  of 
Wardour,  a  Catholic,  and  the  constitution  of  his 
mind  and  all  the  habits  of  a  lifetime  made  him  a 
lover  of  authority  in  church  and  state.  Under  fa 
voring  circumstances  such  a  man  becomes  a  Ro 
man  Catholic  by  gravitation  and  natural  affinity. 

There  was  a  Catholic  revival  in  England  at  this 
time,  especially  among  the  courtiers  and  upper 
classes.  In  1623  there  was  a  large  influx  to  Eng 
land  of  priests  and  Jesuits.  English  Romanists 
flocked  to  the  vicinage  of  London,  and  resorted  in 
great  numbers  to  the  mass  in  the  houses  of  foreign 
ambassadors ;  and  in  many  English  country  houses 
the  mass  was  openly  celebrated  in  defiance  of  law. 
The  Commons,  in  alarm,  adopted  what  James  fitly 
called  "  a  stinging  petition  against  the  papists." 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


227 


VI. 

Calvert  had  staked  his  hopes  for  himself  and 
for  English  Catholicism  on  the  Spanish  match. 
This  otherwise  pliant  courtier  was  intractable 
where  his  religious  convictions  were  concerned. 
He  scrupled  to  draw  back  at  the  bidding  of 
Charles  and  Buckingham,  when  drawing  back  in 
volved  a  violation  of  the  treaty  oath  of  the  king 
and  council,  the  plunging  of  England  into  a  Span 
ish  war,  the  sacrifice  of  the  interests  of  the  Catho 
lic  church,  and  a  fresh  exposure  of  his  co-religion 
ists  in  England  to  a  harsh  persecution.  Calvert 
was  one  of  that  party  in  the  junta  for  Spanish  af 
fairs  which  was  unwilling  to  break  a  solemn  treaty 
in  order  to  gratify  the  wounded  vanity  of  Buck 
ingham  and  Charles,  and  he  paid  dearly  for  his 
firmness.  To  bring  about  his  resignation,  his  an 
tagonists  diverted  business  from  his  office,  thus 
reducing  his  fees  and  subjecting  his  pride  to  morti 
fication.  Under  this  treatment  it  was  noted  by  a 
letter  writer  of  the  time  that  Mr.  Secretary  Cal 
vert  "  droops  and  keeps  out  of  the  way."  It  was 
reported  that  he  was  ill,  and  then  that  he  had  been 
rebuked  by  the  king  and  the  prince,  and  it  was 
known  that  he  wished  to  sell  his  office  to  some  one 
acceptable  to  Buckingham.  Calvert's  cleverness 
as  a  courtier  did  not  fail  him  in  his  fall.  He  suc 
ceeded  at  the  last  in  mollifying  Buckingham,  whose 
consent  he  gained  to  the  sale  of  the  secretaryship. 
After  nearly  a  year  of  the  prolonged  agony  of 


CHAP.  I. 


His  resig 
nation. 


1624. 


228 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 
1625. 


Note  6. 


Calvert 
deserts 
New 
foundland. 


holding  office  in  disfavor,  he  resigned  in  February, 
1625,  receiving  six  thousand  pounds  for  his  office, 
which  was  worth  to  the  incumbent  two  thousand  a 
year.  He  was  at  the  same  time  raised  to  the  Irish 
peerage  as  Baron  Baltimore.  He  made  his  re 
ligious  scruples  the  ostensible  reason  for  his  resig 
nation,  and  he  was  already  known  to  be  "  infinitely 
addicted  to  the  Catholic  faith."  He  made  no  se 
cret  of  his  proscribed  religion  ;  he  exposed  to  vis 
itors  the  altar,  chalice,  and  candlesticks  in  his  best 
room  ;  and  he  catechised  his  children  assiduously 
in  the  doctrines  of  the  ancient  church.  At  the 
accession  of  Charles  he  retired  from  the  Privy 
Council  rather  than  take  an  oath  offensive  to  his 
conscience. 

VII. 

During  the  period  of  his  decline  from  court 
favor  Calvert's  colony  of  Avalon  probably  suffered 
from  neglect.  He  now  gave  his  new  leisure  to  the 
work  of  rescuing  it.  In  1627  he  made  a  voyage 
to  Newfoundland,  taking  a  company  of  Catholic 
settlers  and  two  priests.  He  went  again  in  1628. 
From  Newfoundland  he  wrote  to  one  of  the  Jes 
uits  in  England  a  letter  of  affection,  declaring 
his  readiness  to  divide  with  him  "  the  last  bit" 
he  had  in  the  world.  In  Avalon  began  the  long 
chapter  of  the  troubles  of  the  Baltimores  with  the 
Puritan  opposition.  Besides  his  contentions  with 
Puritan  settlers,  who  abhorred  the  mass  as  a  Jew 
ish  prophet  did  idolatry,  he  found  it  necessary  to 
fight  with  French  privateers  bent  on  plunder.  By 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


229 


the  time  the  almost  interminable  Newfoundland 
winter  had  begun,  he  discovered  that  Avalon  was 
not  the  earthly  paradise  it  appeared  in  the  writ 
ings  of  pamphleteers  and  in  the  letters  of  his 
own  officeholders  interested  only  in  the  continu 
ance  of  their  salaries.  The  icy  Bay  of  Plesaunce 
and  the  bleak  Bay  of  Flowers  mocked  him  with 
their  names  of  delight ;  of  little  avail  was  the  fast- 
bound  River  of  Bonaventure  to  its  unlucky  lord, 
or  the  Harbor  of  Heartsease  to  him  who  had  sunk 
a  fortune  of  thirty  thousand  pounds  in  the  fruitless 
attempt  to  plant  a  settlement  on  a  coast  so  cold. 
Ill  himself,  and  with  half  his  company  down  with 
scurvy,  some  of  them  dying,  Baltimore  turned  his 
thoughts  toward  Virginia,  now,  after  all  its  trials, 
prosperous  under  a  genial  sun. 

He  knew  the  conditions  of  that  colony  and  the 
opportunities  it  afforded.  A  member  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Company  during  nearly  all  the  years  of  its 
stormy  existence,  he  had  been  made  one  of  the 
fifty-six  councilors  that  took  over  its  effects  at  its 
demise,  and  he  was  one  of  the  eight  who  consti 
tuted  the  quorum,  and  who  probably  transacted 
the  business  of  this  Council  for  Virginia.  Even 
under  the  government  of  the  Company  there  had 
been  precedents  for  the  establishment  of  a  "  pre 
cinct  "  within  Virginia  independent  of  the  James 
town  government.  Such  a  plantation  had  been 
that  of  Captain  Martin  and  that  proposed  by  Rich 
and  Argall,  and  a  charter  for  such  had  been  given 
to  the  Leyden  pilgrims.  Baltimore  wrote  to  ask 


!  CHAP.  I. 

Letters  of 
Wynne, 
Daniel, 
and  Hos- 
kins,  in 
Whit- 
j  bourne's 
second  ed. 

Note  7. 


Sails  to 
|  Virginia. 


Ryraer's 
Fosdera, 
torn,  vii, 
iv,  147. 


230 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


for  a  precinct,  pleading  the  king's  promise  already 
made  that  he  might  choose  a  part  of  Virginia. 
Here  he  would  still  be  the  head  of  a  little  inde 
pendent  state— a  state  in  which  the  mass  might 
be  said  without  molestation.  Before  another  win- 
ter  set  in  he  abandoned  Avalon  to  fishermen  and 
such  hardy  folk,  and  took  ship  for  the  James 
River,  where  he  arrived  in  October,  1629. 

VIII. 

Baltimore's  reception  in  Virginia  was  most  in 
hospitable.  He  had  perhaps  counted  on  his  former 
relation  to  the  colony  as  a  councilor  to  assure  him 
a  welcome.  But  the  Virginians  of  that  time  were 
Sandys  and  Southampton  men.  They  may  have 
remembered  that  Calvert  had  been  Sandys's  enemy 
and  political  rival,  and  that  he  belonged  to  the 
faction  of  Sir  Thomas  Smyth  in  the  company. 
The  members  of  that  faction  had  been  the  execu 
tioners  of  the  company  when  they  could  no  longer 
control  it.  Calvert  was  one  of  the  later  council, 
which  had  tried  to  take  away  insidiously  the  privi 
leges  granted  to  Virginians  by  their  charter  from 
the  Virginia  Company.  This  attack  on  their  liber 
ties  they  had  stoutly  resisted,  even  to  cutting  off  a 
piece  of  one  of  the  ears  of  the  clerk  of  their  own 
assembly  for  abetting  it.  Now  a  nobleman  of  the 
detested  faction,  an  advocate  of  absolute  govern 
ment  and  a  close  friend  of  the  king,  had  come 
among  them.  Baltimore  might  easily  expect  to 
secure  the  governorship  of  Virginia  itself.  Per- 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


231 


haps  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  go  even  so  far 
afield  for  a  motive.  The  prospect  of  a  settle 
ment  of  Roman  Catholics  within  the  limits  of  the 
colony  was  in  itself  enough  to  excite  the  oppo 
sition  of  the  Virginia  churchmen.  Baltimore's 
party  of  Catholics  was  not  the  only  one  repelled 
from  Virginia  about  this  time.  Soon  after  Lord 
Baltimore's  visit,  perhaps,  or  just  before,  the  Vir 
ginians  refused  permission  to  a  company  of  Irish 
Catholics  to  settle  within  their  bounds.  These  ap 
pear  to  have  gone  afterward  to  the  island  of  St. 
Christopher's,  where  again  Protestant  fellow-colo 
nists  fell  out  with  them  about  religion,  so  that  they 
were  finally  sent  to  settle  the  neighboring  island  of 
Montserrat. 

The  Virginians,  after  all  their  sufferings,  were 
now  prosperous  in  a  gross  way,  reaping  large 
profits  from  tobacco,  and  living  in  riotous  profusion 
after  the  manner  of  men  beginning  to  emerge  from 
the  hardships  and  perils  of  a  pioneer  condition  into 
sudden  opulence.  Their  rude  living  did  not  at  all 
prevent  the  colonists  from  being  fastidious  about 
their  religion — it  was  the  seventeenth  century. 
Most  of  the  Virginia  clergy  at  this  period  were  as 
reckless  in  life  as  the  people,  but  the  Protestantism 
of  the  colony  was  incorruptible.  Some  of  the  rab 
ble  even  showed  their  piety  by  railing  at  the  newly 
arrived  papist  nobleman. 

A  weapon  of  defense  against  Baltimore  was 
ready  to  hand.  Three  years  before  his  coming  in 
structions  had  been  sent  from  England  to  Yeardley 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  9. 


Character 
of  the 
early  Vir» 
ginians. 


Leah  and 

Rachel, 

and  De 

Vries 

Voyages, 

passim. 


Expulsion 
of  Balti 
more. 


232 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


to  proffer  the  oath  of  supremacy  "  to  all  such  as 
come  thither  with  an  intention  to  plant  and  reside, 
which,  if  any  shall  refuse,  he  is  to  be  retorned  or 
shipped  from  thence  home."  This  order  may  not 
have  been  intended  for  so  great  a  personage  as  a 
nobleman  of  the  Court.  It  may  have  been  meant 
only  to  head  off  humble  Irishmen  like  those  who 
settled  Montserrat,  or  it  may  have  been  merely  a 
fence  against  Separatists.  But  it  served  the  turn 
of  the  alarmed  colonists.  Pott  and  Mathews,  Clai- 
borne  and  Roger  Smyth,  who  led  the  opposition, 
offered  the  oath  to  Baltimore.  Baltimore  had 
sacrificed  his  place  in  the  Privy  Council  rather 
than  take  this  oath  so  contrary  to  his  conscience, 
and  he  now  again  stood  by  his  religious  convictions, 
and  took  ship  for  England  as  ordered  by  the  Vir 
ginia  Council.  He  was  disappointed  and  already 
shaken  in  health.  The  members  of  the  council,  ap 
palled  at  their  own  boldness,  perhaps,  wrote  to  the 
king  in  self-defense.  There  is  still  extant  an  old 
manuscript  record  book  of  the  seventeenth  century 
which  contains  the  instructions  to  Yeardley.  Im 
mediately  following,  as  if  to  put  it  under  the  shelter 
of  royal  authority,  is  the  report  of  the  council, 
without  date  or  signature,  that  the  oath  had  been 
offered  to  Baltimore  and  refused. 

IX. 

Baltimore's  hardships  during  two  voyages  to 
Newfoundland,  and  a  winter  in  the  rude  abodes  of 
pioneers  there,  his  illness  during  that  winter,  the 


The  CatJiolic  Migration. 


233 


constant  spectacle  of  sickness  and  death  about  him, 
and  the  disappointment  caused  by  his  rude  recep 
tion  in  Virginia,  were  enough,  one  would  think,  to 
have  broken  his  resolution.  He  went  back  to  Eng 
land  "  much  decayed  in  his  strength,"  as  he  con 
fessed  ;  but,  strangely  enough,  this  accomplished 
man  of  the  world,  whose  career  had  been  that  of  a 
courtier,  was  far  from  living  in  ease  and  quiet 
ness  as  his  friends  had  expected  him  to  do.  He 
was  possessed  of  a  passion  for  peopling  the  wilder 
ness.  He  had  written  to  the  king  from  America 
that  he  was  resolved  to  spend  "  the  poore  remayn- 
der "  of  his  days  in  colony-planting,  his  "  inclina 
tions  carrying  him  naturally  "  to  such  work.  To 
what  extent  he  was  prompted  by  a  desire  to  leave 
to  his  heir  the  semi-sovereignty  of  a  principality, 
and  how  far  he  was  carried  by  a  naturally  ad 
venturous  temper  hitherto  latent,  we  have  no 
means  of  deciding  ;  but  one  can  hardly  resist  the 
conclusion  that  a  fervent  religious  zeal  was  the 
underlying  spring  of  a  resolution  so  indomitable. 
Like  many  another  man  of  that  time,  Calvert  was 
lifted  from  worldliness  to  high  endeavor  by  re 
ligious  enthusiasm.  The  king  felt  obliged  to  in 
terpose  his  authority ;  he  forbade  Baltimore's 
risking  his  life  in  another  voyage,  but  he  granted 
him  a  charter  for  a  new  palatinate  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Potomac. 

Lord  Baltimore  was  doomed  never  to  see  the 
desire  of  his  eyes.  He  died  on  the  i$th  of  April, 
1632,  before  the  charter  had  passed,  leaving  the 


CHAP.  I. 


Death  of 
the  first 
Lord 
Baltimore. 


234 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


The  char 
ter  of 

Maryland. 


planting  of  Maryland  to  be  carried  forward  by  his 
son  and  heir,  Cecilius.  The  charter  of  Maryland 
passed  the  seals  on  the  22d  of  the  following  June  in 
favor  of  Cecilius,  the  second  Lord  Baltimore. 


x. 

The  Maryland  charter  was  no  doubt  the  work 
of  George  Calvert's  own  hand.  Its  main  provi 
sions  are  identical  with  those  of  Avalon ;  but  it 
put  the  proprietary  in  a  still  better  position.  He 
held  Avalon  by  knight's  service,  Maryland  in  free 
and  common  soccage,  and  the  holdings  of  Mary 
land  settlers  would  be  under  the  proprietary,  not 
under  the  crown.  In  fact,  the  crown  retained 
practically  no  rights  of  value  in  Maryland  beyond 
the  bare  allegiance  of  the  settlers.  Larger  privi 
leges  of  trade  were  conceded  to  Maryland  than  had 
been  given  to  Avalon,  In  one  respect  the  liberties 
of  the  future  settlers  were  apparently  better 
guarded  in  the  Maryland  charter,  for  there  is  a 
faint  promise  of  a  representative  government  in  its 
phraseology.  But  even  this  was  not  definitely 
assured.  In  a  single  regard  the  charter  of  Mary- 
.and  appears  less  favorable  to  the  Catholic  re- 
igion  than  its  predecessors.  Historic  specialists 
with  a  religious  bias,  doing  their  small  best  to 
render  the  current  of  history  turbid,  have  not  failed 
to  convince  themselves  by  means  of  the  new 
clause  that  Maryland  was  a  Protestant  colony. 
The  patronage  and  advowsons  of  all  churches  had 
been  conferred  on  the  proprietary  in  the  Avalon 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


235 


charter,  and  a  like  concession  is  made  in  the  Mary 
land  grant ;  but  to  this,  in  the  Maryland  charter,  is 
attached  a  sort  of  "  lean-to  " — a  qualifying-  clause 
that  appears  to  limit  the  ecclesiastical  organization 
of  the  colony  to  Anglican  forms.  "  Together  with 
license  and  power,"  runs  the  charter,  "  to  build  and 
found  Churches,  Chapels  and  Oratories  in  conven 
ient  and  fit  places  within  the  premises,  and  to  cause 
them  to  be  dedicated  and  consecrated  according  to 
the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  our  kingdom  of  England." 
In  1632  the  Baltimore  family  was  openly  Catholic. 
The  Puritans  were  raging  against  every  indulgence 
shown  by  the  court  to  Romanists.  The  clamor  of 
the  Catholic-baiters  did  not  stop  with  a  demand 
that  Romanists  should  be  expelled  from  England. 
The  Commons  had  a  few  years  earlier  petitioned 
the  King  that  they  be  excluded  from  "all  other 
Your  Highness's  dominions."  The  founding  of  an 
English  colony  that  might  make  a  home  for  Eng 
lish  and  Irish  Romanists  was  a  more  difficult  proj 
ect  in  the  reign  of  Charles  than  it  had  been  in  the 
time  of  James  when  Avalon  was  granted.  The 
clause  which  allowed  Baltimore  to  dedicate  his 
churches  according  to  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of 
England  excites  admiration.  It  graciously  permit 
ted  an  Anglican  establishment  in  Maryland ;  it  did 
not  oblige  Baltimore  to  do  anything  at  all,  nor 
did  it,  in  fact,  put  any  constraint  whatever  on  his 
actions  in  this  regard.  The  impotent  clause  which 
seemed  to  limit,  but  did  not  limit,  the  ecclesiastical 
organization  was  breathlessly  followed  by  one  far 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  10. 


Rush- 
worth, 
Part  I,  vol. 
i,  141, 1623. 


Note  ii. 


236 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


from  impotent — a  masterpiece  of  George  Calvert's 
skill.  It  gave  to  the  proprietary  the  legal  power 
exercised  from  ancient  times  by  the  Bishops  of 
Durham  as  counts-palatine.  The  regalities  of  Dur 
ham  having  been  pared  down  by  Henry  VIII,  the 
charter  somewhat  furtively  reached  back  after  the 
local  absolutism  of  the  middle  ages  by  giving  Bal 
timore  all  the  temporal  power  ever  possessed  by 
any  Bishop  of  Durham.  But  if  alarm  should  be 
taken  at  the  giving  of  powers  so  vast  to  a  Roman 
Catholic  subject,  there  might  be  reassurance  for 
timid  souls  in  a  clause  in  imitation  of  older  char 
ters  than  Calvert's,  which  stipulated  that  no  inter 
pretation  should  be  put  upon  the  charter  by  which 
God's  holy  and  true  Christian  religion  might  be 
prejudiced.  Ambiguity  spread  from  the  charter 
to  some  of  the  early  Maryland  laws,  which  wore 
a  Protestant  or  a  Catholic  face  according  to  the 
side  from  which  they  were  approached. 

XL 

When  George  Calvert  projected  his  new  south 
ern  colony  he  had  every  reason  to  suppose  that  it 
would  be  quickly  supplied  with  settlers  from  the 
discontented  English  and  Irish  Catholics.  The 
statute  enacted  in  the  third  year  of  James,  soon 
after  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  put  those  who  adhered 
to  the  Roman  communion  in  a  precarious  and 
exasperating  situation.  For  the  first  year  that  a 
Catholic  wholly  neglected  the  sacraments  of  the 
English  church  he  must  pay  twenty  pounds.  This 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


237 


was  raised  to  forty  the  second  year,  and  to  sixty 
for  every  year  of  conscientious  abstention  there 
after.  If  he  did  not  attend  the  parish  church  at  all, 
the  luxury  of  a  conscience  cost  him  twenty  pounds 
a  month,  which,  as  money  then  went,  was  a  large 
sum.  If  he  were  a  rich  landholder,  the  king  might 
take  the  use  or  rentals  of  two  thirds  of  his  land 
until  he  should  conform.  The  oath  of  allegiance 
by  which  he  was  to  be  tested  was  made  ingeniously 
offensive  to  a  Catholic  conscience.  If  a  Romanist 
should  persuade  a  Protestant  to  accept  his  own 
faith  he  was  guilty  of  treason,  as  was  also  his  con 
vert.  The  man  who  harbored  a  Roman  Catholic 
neglecting  to  attend  the  parish  church  was  to  be 
fined  ten  pounds  a  month.  Marriage  by  a  Rom 
ish  priest  invalidated  accruing  land  tenures.  The 
Catholic  was  not  suffered  to  send  his  children  be 
yond  seas  for  an  education,  nor  yet  to  keep  a 
schoolmaster  of  his  own  faith  ;  he  could  not  serve 
as  an  executor ;  he  might  not  have  the  charge  of 
any  child  ;  his  house  might  be  searched  for  Catholic 
books ;  he  was  not  allowed  to  keep  weapons ;  and 
when  at  last  his  vexed  and  troubled  life  was  over, 
his  dead  body  might  not  be  buried  among  the 
graves  of  his  forefathers  in  the  parish  churchyard. 

The  administration  of  this  law  was  attended  by 
many  aggravations.  The  pursuivants  took  the 
very  cattle  and  household  goods  of  the  poor ;  from 
the  rich  they  exacted  large  payments,  failing 
which,  they  pounced  on  valuable  plate  and  jewels, 
which  they  seized  under  pretense  that  these  were 


238 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


articles  of  superstition  or  the  concealed  property 
of  Jesuits.  It  is  said  that  James  derived  a  revenue 
of  thirty-six  thousand  pounds  a  year  from  the  fines 
of  lay  Catholics.  To  the  several  Scotch  favorites  of 
the  king  were  assigned  certain  rich  recusants  from 
whom  they  might  squeeze  whatever  could  be  got 
by  the  leverage  of  the  law. 

Very  embarrassing  to  the  foreign  policy  of 
England  was  the  seventy  of  English  laws  against 
Catholics,  and  Lord  Treasurer  Burleigh  found  it 
needful  to  publish  in  Elizabeth's  time,  for  circula 
tion  in  all  the  courts  of  Europe,  a  treatise  on  The 
Execution  of  Justice  in  England  and  the  Mainte 
nance  of  Public  Order  and  Christian  Peace;  and 
in  the  following  reign  James  himself  turned  pam 
phleteer  and  published  an  Apologie  for  the  Oath 
of  Allegiance.  There  were  periods  when  pressure 
from  abroad  softened  the  administration  of  the  law. 
But  it  was  only  irregularly  and  intermittently  that 
the  Government  could  be  brought  to  grant  in 
dulgences  that  roused  the  pious  wrath  of  Puritans 
and  reduced  the  revenue  of  the  king  and  his 
favorites.  If  Spain,  and  afterward  France,  made  it 
a  condition  precedent  to  a  marriage  treaty  that  the 
penal  laws  against  English  recusants  should  be  re 
laxed,  Parliament,  resenting  foreign  dictation,  de 
manded  of  the  king  a  renewal  of  the  severities 
against  papists.  Twenty-four  Catholics  suffered 
capitally  in  James's  reign,  before  1618;  and  when 
in  1622  it  was  necessary  to  condone  Catholicism  in 
order  to  conciliate  Spain,  it  is  said  that  four  hun- 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


dred  Jesuits  and  priests  were  set  free  on  bail  at  one 
time.  The  number  of  Catholics,  lay  and  cleric, 
released  in  this  year  is  put  at  four  thousand,  but 
this  may  be  an  exaggeration. 


XII. 

In  1627,  and  again  in  1628,  Lord  Baltimore  took 
Catholics  with  him  to  Newfoundland  and  settled 
priests  there.  The  English  court  was  just  then 
sailing  on  a  Protestant  tack,  and  England  had  allied 
itself  with  the  Huguenots  of  La  Rochelle.  An 
other  of  the  good  works  by  which  the  government 
of  Charles  and  Buckingham  was  endeavoring  to 
prove  its  sanctification  was  the  enforcement  of  the 
penal  statutes  against  Roman  Catholics.  It  is 
notable  that  Baltimore  sailed  with  the  first  Catholic 
emigrants  to  Avalon  about  the  time  of  the  setting 
in  of  the  movement  toward  Massachusetts  which 
swelled  at  length  into  the  great  Puritan  exodus. 
The  five  years  of  delay  caused  by  the  change  from 
Avalon  to  Maryland,  and  also  perhaps  by  the  ex 
haustion  of  Baltimore's  resources  and  his  death, 
was  unfavorable  to  the  project  of  a  Catholic  prov 
ince.  The  English  government  by  1634  had  grown 
more  lenient  toward  Romanists,  the  co-religion 
ists  of  the  queen.  The  work  at  which  Laud  kept 
all  hands  busy  just  then  was  the  suppression  of 
Puritanism,  and  thousands  of  Puritans  were  by  this 
time  shaking  the  dust  of  England  from  their  feet 
and  seeking  a  home  in  the  western  wilderness, 
persuaded  that  the  Church  of  England  under  Laud 


240 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 

Harl.  Mis- 
cell.,  ii, 
492,  and 
following, 
where  pas 
sages  from 
contempo 
rary  writers 
are  quoted. 


Balti 
more's 
partners. 


Note  13. 


The  reli 
gious  aim. 


had  all  sails  set  for  Rome.  This  illusion  regarding 
the  purposes  of  the  archbishop  and  his  party, 
which  alarmed  the  Puritans,  heartened  the  Catho 
lics,  who  naturally  preferred  to  stay  at  home  where 
a  flood  tide  seemed  to  be  setting  toward  Catholi 
cism.  The  small  Catholic  migration  to  Maryland 
was  not  to  be  compared  with  that  stream  of  Puri 
tan  emigration  that  about  this  time  poured  into 
New  England  twenty  thousand  people  in  a  decade. 
The  fall  of  Laud  and  the  rise  of  the  Puritans  to 
power  put  a  complete  stop  to  the  New  England 
migration,  but  it  failed  to  quicken  the  Catholic 
movement,  for  Maryland  herself  had  become  sadly 
involved  in  the  civil  commotions  of  the  time. 

Cecilius  Calvert  undoubtedly  counted  on  a 
large  migration  of  Catholic  recusants,  and  the 
documents  show  that  the  Jesuit  order  in  England 
took  great  interest  in  the  movement.  The  second 
Lord  Baltimore  was  joined  by  partners  in  the 
financial  risks  of  the  venture,  and  though  we  meet 
with  more  than  one  allusion  to  these  adventurers 
whose  interest  in  the  colony  was  apparently  still 
active  twenty  years  after  its  beginning,  they  were 
profoundly  silent  partners ;  their  names  are  no 
where  recorded,  and  we  are  left  to  conjecture  the 
origin  of  their  interest  in  Maryland. 

XIII. 

"  The  first  and  most  important  design  of  the 
Most  Illustrious  Baron,  which  ought  also  to  be  the 
aim  of  the  rest,  who  go  in  the  same  ship,  is,  not  to 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


241 


think  so  much  of  planting  fruits  and  trees  in  a  land 
so  fertile,  as  of  sowing  the  seeds  of  religion  and 
piety."  This  was  Lord  Baltimore's  authoritative 
declaration,  and  because  it  varies  in  form  from  the 
stock  phrases  so  common  at  the  time,  it  bears  an 
air  of  some  sincerity,  though  it  is  diplomatically 
ambiguous. 

Baltimore's  opponents  made  great  exertions 
to  prevent  the  departure  of  the  Ark  and  the 
Dove,  which  were  to  bear  faithful  Catholics 
across  the  flood  to  a  new  world.  A  story  was 
started  that  these  ships  were  carrying  nuns  to 
Spain,  and  another  tale  that  found  believers  was 
that  they  had  soldiers  on  board  going  to  France  to 
serve  against  the  English.  It  was  told  that  Cal- 
vert's  men  had  abused  the  customs  officers  at 
Gravesend,  and  sailed  without  cockets  in  contempt 
of  all  authority,  the  people  on  board  refusing  the 
oath  of  allegiance.  The  Ark  was  stopped  and 
brought  back  by  order  of  the  Privy  Council,  and 
the  oath  of  allegiance  was  given  to  a  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  passengers.  But  the  ships  came  to 
again  at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  when  they  got 
away  at  last  there  were  near  three  hundred  pas 
sengers  on  board,  including  Jesuit  priests.  Most  of 
the  passengers  were  "  laboring  men  "  ;  how  many 
were  Catholic  and  how  many  Protestant  it  is  im 
possible  now  to  tell.  That  the  leaders  and  the 
gentry  were,  most  of  them,  Catholics  there  is 
every  reason  to  believe.  The  passengers  called 
Protestants  were  rather  non-Catholics,  precisely 
17 


242 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony -Plant  ing. 


BOOK  in. 


Note  14. 


Tolera 
tion. 


Note  15. 


Toleration 
a  policy. 


the  kind  of  emigrants  that  would  give  the  Jesuits 
the  converts  of  which  they  tell  exultantly  in  their 
letters.  There  was  no  Protestant  minister  on 
board,  nor  was  there  the  slightest  provision  for 
Protestant  worship,  present  or  future. 

XIV. 

Toleration  was  the  Baltimore  policy  from  the 
beginning.  It  was  no  doubt  in  the  original  plan  of 
George  Calvert  and  his  associates,  whoever  they 
were.  The  Provincial  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  pri 
vately  furnished  Baltimore  with  arguments  in  de 
fense  of  this  policy  before  the  first  colony  sailed. 
The  founders  of  Maryland  were  men  of  affairs 
shaping  plan  to  opportunity,  and  the  situation  was 
inexorable.  Toleration  and  protection  was  all  that 
English  Roman  Catholics  could  hope  to  find  in 
traveling  thus  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Cecilius  gave  positive  instruction  that  on  ship 
board  acts  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  should 
be  performed  with  as  much  privacy  as  possible,  so 
as  not  to  offend  the  Protestant  passengers  "  where 
by  any  just  complaint  may  hereafter  be  made  by 
them  in  Virginia  or  in  England."  There  is  no  pre 
tense  of  theory  here ;  all  is  based  on  the  exigency 
of  the  situation  and  sound  policy.  The  policy  was 
George  Calvert's,  whose  school  was  the  court  of 
James,  and  whose  whole  career  shows  that  he  en 
tertained  no  advanced  views  of  human  liberty. 
Had  he  held  toleration  as  a  theory  of  government, 
his  doctrine  would  have  been  more  liberal  than 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


243 


that  of  Ralegh  and  Bacon  and  far  in  advance  of 
that  of  contemporary  Puritan  leaders.  They  quite 
misunderstand  the  man  who  regard  him  as  a  pro 
gressive  thinker ;  he  was  a  conservative  oppor 
tunist.  Still  less  was  Cecilius  a  man  likely  to  act 
on  general  principles. 

xv. 

We  have  seen  how  religiously  the  Puritans 
passed  their  time  at  sea  in  long  daily  expositions  of 
Scripture  and  other  devotions,  and  that  sometimes 
even  the  watch  was  set  with  a  psalm.  Not  less  re 
ligious  were  the  Catholic  pilgrims,  and  though  the 
form  is  strikingly  different,  the  believing  and  zeal 
ous  age  is  the  same.  To  make  things  safe,  the 
Jesuit  fathers  committed  the  principal  parts  of 
the  ship  in  some  detail  to  the  protection  of  God 
in  the  first  place,  and  then  to  that  "  of  His  Most 
Holy  Mother  and  of  St.  Ignatius  and  of  all  the 
angels  of  Maryland."  These  angels  to  whom  the 
safety  of  Maryland  was  committed  were  kept  busy 
by  special  spiritual  opponents.  A  dangerous  storm 
was  raised  on  one  occasion  by  all  the  "  malignant 
spirits  of  the  tempest  and  all  the  evil  genii  of 
Maryland."  But  Father  White  circumvented  this 
combination  of  ordinary  storm  spirits  with  imps  of 
Protestant  proclivities  by  setting  forth  to  Christ 
and  the  Blessed  Virgin,  while  the  storm  was  at  its 
worst,  "  that  the  purpose  of  this  journey  was  to 
glorify  the  Blood  of  our  Redeemer  in  the  salva 
tion  of  the  Barbarians,  and  also  to  build  up  a  king- 


CHAP.  I. 


Religious 
observ 
ance  at 
sea. 


Relatio 
Itineris, 
p.  10. 


Note  16. 


244 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


dom  for  the  Saviour  and  to  consecrate  another 
gift  to  the  Immaculate  Virgin  his  mother."  The 
last  clause  apparently  refers  to  Maryland,  as  if  it 
were  named  in  honor  of  the  Virgin.  The  repre 
sentation  was  effective ;  the  good  father  had  scarce 
ly  ceased  speaking  when  the  storm  began  to  abate. 
The  Puritans  when  using  a  geographical  name 
that  began  with  the  word  "  saint  "  scrupulously  un- 
canonized  it  by  leaving  off  the  prefix.  But  these 
devout  pilgrims  of  the  Roman  faith,  when  once  the 
saints  and  guardian  angels  of  Maryland  had  piloted 
them  safe  in  spite  of  the  malice  of  storm  spirits 
and  evil  genii  into  landlocked  waters  and  the 
bounds  of  Lord  Baltimore's  grant,  proceeded  to 
sanctify  the  whole  region  by  sprinkling  it  with  the 
names  of  saints  and  angels  from  Michael  the  arch 
angel  downward.  The  ancient  Indian  designations 
were  marks  of  a  heathenism  they  purposed  to  over 
throw,  and  they  began  by  trying  to  get  rid  of  the 
whole  "  bead  roll  of  unbaptized  names."  No  con 
venient  island,  creek,  river,  bay,  or  cape  escaped 
Christian  baptism.  On  Annunciation  Day,  1634, 
they  landed  on  Heron  Island,  in  the  Potomac,  which 
they  named  appropriately  for  St.  Clement,  who  was 
martyred  by  being  thrown  into  the  sea  attached  to 
an  anchor,  and  here  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass  was 
celebrated,  the  worshipers  reflecting  that  "  never 
before  had  this  been  done  in  this  part  of  the  world." 
After  the  mass  they  took  upon  their  shoulders  a 
great  cross  hewn  out  of  a  tree  and  advanced  in 
order  to  the  place  appointed,  where  the  governor 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


245 


and  his  assistants  took  part  in  its  erection.  The 
Catholics  of  the  party,  seeing  this  symbol  of  the 
faith  erected  in  a  new  land,  knelt  upon  the  ground 
and  recited  the  litanies  of  the  cross  in  a  kind  of  re 
ligious  ecstasy.  Here  in  another  form  was  that 
tender  attachment  to  their  faith  that  one  finds 
among  the  more  devout  Protestant  exiles,  and  in 
the  nobler  natures  there  was  doubtless  that  element 
of  the  heroic  and  the  saintly  often  evolved  in  the 
religious  sufferings  and  activities  of  that  day — a  re 
lief  to  the  pettiness  of  the  debates  and  the  irksome- 
ness  of  the  bigotries  of  the  age. 

XVI. 

The  colony  had  been  named  Maryland  by  King 
Charles  in  honor  of  his  wife  Henrietta  Maria  ;  at 
least  there  was  assigned  to  the  king  responsibility 
for  a  name  that,  like  nearly  everything  else  about 
Maryland,  was  ambiguous.  But  the  phrase  Terra 
Maries  in  the  charter,  though  represented  there  to 
be  the  equivalent  of  Maryland,  was  significant  to  a 
devout  Catholic  of  something  better  than  a  compli 
ment  to  a  Catholic  queen.  The  Indian  village 
which  with  its  gardens  and  cornfields  had  been 
bought  for  the  germinal  settlement  and  capital, 
took  the  name  of  St.  Mary's,  and  the  whole  in 
fant  colony  is  called  the  Colony  of  St.  Maries,  by 
its  own  Legislative  Assembly  in  1638,  as  though  by 
Maryland  were  intended  the  land  of  Mary.  Not 
withstanding  the  manifest  care  of  the  second  Lord 
Baltimore  to  hold  the  missionaries  within  the  limits 


CHAP.  I. 


A  Catholic 
colony. 


Compare 
Clarke's 
Gladstone 
and  Mary 
land  Tol 
eration. 


Maryland 
Archives, 
23- 


246 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


of  worldly  prudence,  the  zealous  fathers  lived  and 
labored  in  a  spirit  of  other-worldliness.  They 
set  themselves  first  of  all  to  convert  those  sheep 
without  a  shepherd,  the  Protestants  of  Maryland. 
Some  of  these  appear  to  have  been  men  of  reckless 
and  immoral  lives,  who  were  greatly  bettered  by 
an  acceptance  of  religious  restraint.  Those  non- 
Catholics  who  were  ill,  and  those  who  found  them 
selves  languishing  and  dying  in  the  wilderness 
without  the  consolations  of  their  own  religion, 
were  zealously  visited  and  converted  in  extremis  by 
the  Jesuits.  The  servants  and  mechanics  employed 
by  or  apprenticed  to  the  missionaries  were  brought 
under  their  constant  influence  and  were  readily 
won.  Nearly  all  the  Protestants  who  arrived  in 
1638  were  swiftly  brought  over  to  the  faith  of  the 
missionaries,  and  twelve  converts  were  joyously 
reckoned  as  fruits  of  the  Jesuit  labors  in  1639. 
There  was  more  than  one  instance  of  the  miracu 
lous,  or  at  least  of  the  marvelous,  to  help  on  this 
work.  One  man  of  noble  birth,  who  had  by  dissi 
pation  brought  himself  to  desperate  straits,  and 
then  sunk  until  he  became  at  length  a  bond  serv 
ant  in  Maryland,  embraced  Catholicism.  After  the 
death  of  this  convert  a  very  bright  light  was  some 
times  seen  burning  about  his  place  of  burial,  and 
even  those  who  were  not  Catholics  were  permitted 
to  see  this  wonder.  The  horrible  punishments  that 
resulted  from  the  Divine  wrath  against  those  who 
scoffingly  rejected  the  Catholic  faith  in  Maryland 
remind  one  of  the  equal  calamities  that  befell  those 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


who  were  unfaithful  to  Puritanism  in  New  Eng 
land.  Seventeenth-century  Englishmen  with  sky- 
wide  differences  in  opinion  were  one  in  the  traits 
that  belonged  to  their  age.  Father  White  was  sure 
that  the  destruction  of  Indians  in  Maryland  was 
specially  ordered  by  God  to  provide  an  opening 
"  for  His  own  everlasting  law  and  light  "  ;  but  not 
more  sure  than  were  the  Puritans  that  the  cruel 
plague  which  exterminated  whole  villages  on  the 
Massachusetts  coast  was  sent  to  open  a  way  for  the 
planting  of  Calvinistic  churches.  Each  division 
of  Christians  in  turn  reduced  the  Almighty  Creator 
to  the  level  of  a  special  tutelary  divinity,  some 
times  to  that  of  a  rather  vindictive  genius  of  the 
place. 

In  this  work  of  propagandism  the  missionaries 
did  not  forget  the  red  men.  Their  labors  among 
the  aborigines  were  fairly  successful  at  first,  then 
interrupted  by  relapse  and  by  war.  Such  is 
the  history  of  Indian  missions.  Much  was  made 
of  the  solemn  profession  and  baptism  of  an  In 
dian  "  king,"  at  which  the  governor  and  other 
distinguished  men  "  honored  by  their  presence  the 
Christian  sacraments,"  the  governor  marching  be 
hind  the  neophyte  in  the  procession.  Maryland 
was  in  fact  openly  a  Catholic  colony  until  after 
1640. 

But  as  a  Catholic  colony  it  was  a  failure.  In 
fear  of  the  rising  Puritan  tempest  in  England,  or 
the  violent  opposition  on  several  grounds  of  its 
stronger  neighbor  Virginia,  and  of  the  mutinous 


CHAP.  I. 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


bigotry  of  its  own  Puritan  settlers,  who  regarded 
Baltimore's  government  as  a  "  Babylon "  to  be 
overthrown,  it  was  never  able  to  afford  to  Catho 
lics  perfect  security,  much  less  was  it  able  to 
promise  them  domination.  But  the  Catholics  in 
cluded  most  of  the  rich  and  influential  families,  and 
it  was  a  Jesuit  boast  that  they  were  superior  to 
other  American  settlers  in  breeding  and  urbanity. 
As  they  had  choice  of  the  best  land  in  the  province, 
the  Catholic  families  remained  during  the  whole 
colonial  period  among  the  most  prominent  people 
of  Maryland.  There  is  also  evidence  that  the 
Catholics  were  numerically  considerable  in  propor 
tion  to  the  population,  though  the  reports  on  the 
subject  are  vague  and  conflicting.  In  1641  they 
were  about  one  fourth  of  the  whole.  The  ranks  of 
the  early  Catholic  settlers,  both  of  the  rich  and 
poor,  seem  to  have  been  recruited  from  Ireland 
as  well  as  from  England,  but  the  Maryland  gov 
ernment  in  Queen  Anne's  Protestant  time  passed 
acts  levying  an  import  tax  of  twenty  pounds  on 
each  Irish  Catholic  servant,  in  order  that  the  bond 
servants  and  even  the  transported  convicts  in 
Maryland  should  be  orthodox  Protestants. 

XVII. 

George  Calvert,  the  first  Baron  Baltimore, 
molded  the  Maryland  enterprise  until  the  drafting 
of  the  charter,  and  his  spirit  was  felt  in  it  after  his 
death.  Cecilius,  his  son,  was  a  man  of  a  somewhat 
different  sort,  and  his  traits  became  more  apparent 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


as  time  went  on.  He  was  strongly  supported  at 
court  by  Strafford,  his  father's  most  devoted  and 
obliged  friend,  and  no  doubt  also  by  the  queen, 
who  was  godmother  to  Maryland.  The  opposi 
tion  to  Maryland  was  probably  embittered  by  the 
hatred  to  Strafford  and  the  jealousy  of  a  Catholic 
queen. 

On  his  enemies  in  Virginia  the  younger  Balti 
more  took  ample  vengeance.  He  got  one  of  the 
queen's  household  appointed  treasurer  of  the 
colony,  and  the  Virginians  found  themselves 
obliged  to  pay  the  quitrents,  which  had  been 
neglected  and  apparently  forgotten.  Other  officers 
of  the  colony  were  nominated  by  Baltimore.  Har 
vey,  the  governor,  hoping  to  collect  money  due 
him  from  the  royal  treasury  by  Baltimore's  assist 
ance,  was  his  obsequious  tool,  to  the  bitter  indig 
nation  of  the  Virginians,  who  hated  Baltimore  not 
only  because  he  was  a  Romanist,  but  also  because 
he  had  divided  the  first  colony  and  cut  off  the 
northern  Indian  trade  from  Virginia.  In  conse 
quence  of  the  quarrel  between  Harvey  and  the 
Virginians  over  Maryland  there  ensued  a  revolu 
tion  in  Virginia ;  Harvey  was  shipped  to  England 
by  the  same  bold  men  who  had  sent  the  first  Lord 
Baltimore  packing.  But  Harvey  was  sent  back 
again  by  the  king,  and  by  this  counter  revolution 
the  colonial  constitution  of  Virginia  was  modified 
for  the  worse.  It  was  altogether  an  exquisite  re 
venge. 

Cecilius  meditated  even  a  bolder  stroke.      He 


250 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


schemed  through  Windebank  to  have  himself  made 
governor  of  Virginia,  promising  to  wring  out  of  it 
eight  thousand  pounds  more  of  revenue  for  the 
king  from  some  neglected  sources.  To  achieve 
this,  he  proposed  a  scheme  by  which  Windebank 
was  to  impose  on  the  king's  credulity.  Secretary 
Windebank  may  have  recoiled  from  the  part  he 
was  to  play ;  it  is  certain  that  Charles  was  not 
persuaded  to  hand  over  Virginia  bound  hand  and 
foot  into  the  power  of  the  proprietary  of  the  rival 
colony. 

XVIII. 

Intolerance  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  of 
Maryland  directed  toward  Protestants  might  have 
brought  a  swift  overthrow  of  the  whole  project. 
The  instructions  given  for  the  first  voyage  already 
cited  sho\v  throughout  the  need  for  extreme  cau 
tion  in  the  face  of  extreme  peril.  It  is  required  of 
the  governor  and  commissioners  that  "  they  be 
very  careful  to  preserve  the  peace  amongst  all  the 
passengers  on  shipboard,  and  that  they  suffer  no 
scandal  nor  offense  to  be  given  to  any  of  the  Prot 
estants."  The  rulers  are  to  instruct  the  Catholics 
to  be  silent  "  upon  all  occasions  of  discourse  con 
cerning  matter  of  religion,"  and  those  in  authority 
are  to  "  treat  the  Protestants  with  as  much  mild 
ness  and  favor  as  justice  will  permit."  These  in 
structions  were  to  hold  good  after  landing,  and 
in  one  notable  case  of  religious  dissension  after 
the  arrival  in  Maryland,  justice  was  meted  out 
against  the  Catholic  offender  in  a  way  that  showed 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


251 


a  disposition  to  observe  this  policy  of  conciliation 
toward  Protestants  at  the  expense  of  some  unfair 
ness  toward  Catholics.  Very  early  a  proclamation 
was  issued  for  the  suppression  of  all  religious  dis 
putes,  and  Copley,  the  business  administrator  of 
the  Jesuits,  thought  they  ought  to  be  put  down  for 
fear  the  writings  should  be  sent  to  the  governor 
of  Virginia. 

The  ambiguous  charter  of  Maryland  was  a 
necessary  hypocrisy.  The  plan  of  toleration  was 
also  inevitable,  and  it  was  carried  no  further  than 
necessity  required,  for  in  that  age,  when  toleration 
was  odious,  a  liberal  policy  had  also  its  perils. 
The  Act  for  Church  Liberties  of  1639  was  a  fine 
example  of  the  studied  ambidexterity  of  the  Ma 
ryland  government.  It  was  enacted  "  that  Hoi}7 
Church  within  this  province  shall  have  all  her 
rights,  liberties,  and  immunities,  safe,  whole,  and 
inviolate  in  all  things."  Holy  Church  here  is  a 
deliberate  substitution  for  "  the  Church  of  Eng 
land  "  in  a  similar  phrase  of  Magna  Charta.  Such 
an  act  was  worthy  of  Bunyan's  Mr.  Facing-both- 
ways.  Interpreted  by  judges  holding  office  at  the 
will  of  a  Catholic  proprietary,  it  could  have  but 
one  meaning.  For  the  outside  world  it  might 
bear  another  sense.  It  did  all  that  could  be  done 
in  the  circumstances  for  the  Roman  Catholic  re 
ligion  and  for  Catholic  ecclesiastics. 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


XIX. 

In  1643,  Parliament,  dominated  by  Puritans, 
could  not  let  the  distant  Maryland  province  rest  in 
peace.  It  passed  an  ordinance  making  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  Governor  in  Chief  and  Lord  High  Ad 
miral  of  all  the  plantations  in  America.  This  act 
contained  covert  allusions  to  papists,  Spaniards, 
and  governors  recently  appointed  by  the  king. 
Baltimore  met  the  rising  tempest  in  a  way  char 
acteristic  of  him.  If  he  could  settle  a  portion  of 
his  province  with  Puritans  they  might  serve  to 
shield  him  from  the  storm.  Besides,  the  Catholic 
emigration  had  not  proved  large,  and  his  province 
needed  inhabitants.  He  wrote  to  a  Captain  Gib 
bons,  of  Boston,  sending  him  a  commission  under 
the  Maryland  government,  and  offering  "  free  lib 
erty  of  religion  and  all  other  privileges  "  to  such 
of  the  New  England  people  as  were  willing  to  re 
move  to  Maryland.  There  were  those  in  New 
England  in  that  day  who  longed  for  a  more  genial 
climate,  but  to  settle  under  the  authority  of  a  pa 
pist  was  to  them  much  like  pitching  a  tent  on  the 
confines  of  perdition. 

Though  Puritans  could  not  be  induced  to  move 
from  New  England,  it  happened  that  the  Puritans 
living  in  Virginia  were  persecuted  in  this  same 
year  by  that  stanch  cavalier  and  retrograde  church 
man,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  who  wanted  his  par 
sons  to  read  prayers,  but  did  not  like  preaching 
ministers  of  any  sort.  He  was  new  to  his  govern- 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


253 


ment,  and  had  brought  over  with  him  plenty  of 
hostility  to  the  party  that  had  affronted  his  royal 
master  in  England.  Virginia  Puritans  had  no 
choice  but  to  suffer  or  depart,  and  Maryland  was 
convenient.  They  began  soon  after  this  to  seek  a 
refuge  under  the  protection  of  a  proprietary  who 
was  a  papist  and  who  practiced  toleration — two 
things  almost  equally  hateful  to  the  Puritans.  Mr. 
James,  a  Puritan  minister,  tarried  in  Maryland  a 
short  time,  as  early  as  1643  ;  he  was  probably  the 
only  Protestant  minister  that  set  foot  on  Maryland 
soil  before  1650.  But  the  Puritan  was  never  easy 
unless  he  was  uneasy,  and  he  was  sure  to  be  un 
easy  within  when  there  was  none  to  molest  from 
without.  To  take  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  a  papist 
was  to  him  swearing  fealty  to  antichrist ;  but  so 
desirous  was  Baltimore  of  Puritan  settlers  that 
even  the  Maryland  oath  of  fidelity  was  modified, 
and  a  saving  clause  was  inserted  for  the  ease  of 
the  Puritan  conscience.  The  coming  of  Puritans 
who  were  in  sympathy  with  the  Parliament  in 
England  and  who  abhorred  a  tolerant  papist,  con 
tributed  something  to  the  multifarious  turmoils  of 
the  following  years. 

XX. 

What  we  know  of  the  petty  civil  wars  of  Mary 
land  is  tedious  and  perplexing.  The  broils  before 
1649  sprang  from  diverse  sources,  some  of  which 
we  know,  others  we  may  easily  conjecture.  There 
was  the  old  claim  of  Claiborne  to  jurisdiction  over 


254 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


Kent  Island  ;  there  was  a  disposition  on  the  part 
of  some  of  the  Marylanders  to  relieve  the  tedium 
of  existence  by  taking  a  hand  in  the  great  struggle 
against  royal  authority  which  was  rending  Eng 
land  ;  there  was  the  tendency  common  in  frontier 
communities  to  carry  debates  to  a  violent  issue  ; 
there  was  perhaps  a  natural  proneness  to  insurrec 
tion  on  the  part  of  bond  servants  and  men  lately 
out  of  service ;  and  there  was  an  innate  hunger  for 
spoil  of  any  sort  in  the  seamen  of  that  age  and  in 
the  rougher  class  on  shore.  But  by  1648  the  tem 
pest  had  passed  for  the  time  ;  order  had  been  re 
established  ;  the  Catholic  and  the  Puritan  were  liv 
ing  in  peace  like  the  lion  and  the  lamb  of  Hebrew 
prophecy ;  and  the  Catholic  proprietary,  always 
promptly  bending  before  the  storm,  had  delegated 
his  authority  to  a  Protestant  governor  who  took 
the  Parliament  side. 

XXI. 

Before  this  epoch  Maryland  toleration  had  been 
merely  a  practical  fact.  It  had  not  been  theoretic 
ally  stated ;  it  had  not  been  a  matter  of  legislation 
at  all ;  its  extent  and  limitations  were  unknown. 
But  now  that  this  colonial  home  of  Catholics  was 
to  be  a  land  of  Protestants,  and  particularly  of 
Puritans,  it  was  necessary  to  formulate  the  prin 
ciple  of  toleration,  the  more,  that  Baltimore's  own 
co-religionists  were  to  be  put  under  a  Protestant 
governor.  Governor  and  high  officers  of  state 
were  required  to  swear  that  they  would  molest  on 


The  CatJiolic  Migration. 


255 


account  of  religion  no  person  professing  to  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ,  "  and  in  particular  no  Roman  Cath 
olic."  By  the  mere  march  of  events  it  had  come 
to  pass  that  in  the  state  founded  by  Catholics  as  a 
cradle  for  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  the  Cath 
olic  was  now  compelled  to  secure  as  best  he  could 
the  toleration  of  his  religion  at  the  hands  of  the 
heretic.  Part  of  Baltimore's  plan  for  this  new  set 
tlement  of  affairs  involved  the  sending  over  of  a 
code  of  perpetual  laws  to  be  adopted  by  the  Assem 
bly.  The  proprietary  gave  orders  that  the  gov 
ernor  should  not  assent  to  any  of  these  laws  if  all 
were  not  passed  ;  but  the  Assembly  of  Maryland 
farmers  was  too  cunning  to  be  entrapped  into  pass 
ing  laws  which  it  thought  inconvenient  and  unjust. 
A  humble  letter  was  sent  from  the  members  to 
the  lord  proprietary  complaining  that  they  were 
"  illeterate "  and  "  void  of  that  Understanding 
and  Comprehension  "  necessary  to  the  discussion 
of  such  a  code,  and  that  in  April  they  were  too 
busy  with  their  "  necessary  employment  in  a 
Crop "  to  give  attention  to  it.  They  selected 
certain  acts  out  of  the  code  which  they  passed, 
among  which  was  the  famous  Act  of  Toleration  of 
1649.  That  this  was  part  of  the  code  sent  from 
England  there  can  be  no  doubt ;  the  "  illeterate  " 
colonists  were  not  capable  of  framing  it,  and  it 
bears  the  character-mark  of  the  Baltimore  policy 
throughout.  Here  is  no  philosophic  theory  of  tol 
eration,  no  far-reaching  conclusion  like  that  of 
Roger  Williams,  that  the  magistrate  may  not  take 


CHAP.  I. 


256 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony -Plant  ing. 


cognizance  of  merely  religious  offences.  Williams 
was  a  thinker,  a  doctrinary,  too  far  in  advance  of 
his  age  to  be  the  successful  organizer  of  a  new 
state.  Baltimore,  on  the  other  hand,  accepted  a 
practical  toleration  as  an  expedient — he  may  even 
have  come  to  believe  in  it  as  a  theory  by  force  of 
his  own  situation.  But  he  was  not  primarily  a 
thinker  at  all.  Even  here,  where  Baltimorean  tol 
eration  reaches  high  tide,  no  philosophic  congruity 
is  sought.  The  Jew  and  the  Unitarian  who  deny 
the  divinity  of  Christ  are  to  be  put  to  death. 
Only  so  much  toleration  is  granted  as  is  needful 
to  the  occasion.  And  even  this  toleration  is  not 
put  upon  any  other  ground  than  public  policy ; 
the  forcing  of  conscience  in  religion  "  hath  fre 
quently  fallen  out  to  be  of  dangerous  conse 
quence" ;  therefore  this  law  is  made  "  to  preserve 
mutual  love  and  amity  amongst  the  inhabitants." 
The  provisions  against  such  offences  as  blasphemy 
and  Sabbath-breaking  and  religious  disputes  pre 
cede  those  for  toleration.  Very  politic  is  the  ar 
rangement  by  which  reviling  of  God  is  made  a 
capital  offence,  while  reviling  the  Virgin  Mary  is 
adroitly  associated  with  speeches  against  the  "  holy 
apostles  or  evangelists  "  as  a  sort  of  second-class 
blasphemy,  a  finable  offence. 

And  yet  it  was  toleration,  and  the  law  was  all 
the  more  influential  as  an  example,  perhaps,  be 
cause  it  was  only  practical  and  quite  incongruous. 
It  was  eminently  prudent  and  statesmanlike.  That 
it  was  not  perpetually  effective  was  the  fault  not 


The  CatJiolic  Migration. 


257 


of  Baltimore  but  of  the  times.  Puritan  ideas  were 
rampant.  The  government  of  the  proprietary  was 
overthrown ;  the  Jesuits  fled  to  the  inhospitable 
Virginia,  where  they  lived  concealed  in  a  low  hut 
like  a  cistern  or  a  tomb,  not  lamenting  their  phys 
ical  privations  so  much  as  the  lack  of  wine  which 
deprived  them  of  the  consolation  of  the  sacrament. 
The  new  government  of  Maryland,  five  years  after 
Baltimore's  famous  "  act  concerning  Religion," 
passed  a  new  act.  with  the  same  title  —  an  act 
brusque  and  curt,  a  law  with  its  boots  and  spurs 
on.  "  That  none  profess  and  exercise  the  papist 
religion  "  is  its  rude  forbidding.  The  tables  are 
turned  ;  it  is  no  longer  the  nonresident  Jew  and 
the  hypothetical  Unitarian  who  are  excepted.  But 
the  wheels  rolled  swiftly  once  more,  and  in  three 
years  Cecilius,  absolute  lord  and  proprietary,  was 
again  master  of  Maryland,  and  the  beneficent  act 
of  1649  resumed  its  sway.  It  protected  the  Catho 
lic  element,  which,  though  always  rich  and  in 
fluential,  came  to  be  in  latter  colonial  times  but 
about  a  twelfth  of  the  population.  Toleration  also 
served  to  make  Maryland  an  early  dwelling  place 
for  abounding  Quakers  and  others  holding  re 
ligious  views  not  relished  in  colonies  less  liberal. 


CHAP.  I. 


13 


258 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 


Note  i, 
page  223. 


Note  2, 
page  224. 


Note  3, 
page  225. 


Note  4, 
page  225. 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

"  Voto  a  Dios  que  la  Corte  d'Inglatierra  es  como  un  libro  de 
cavalleros  andantes."  Quoted  by  Chamberlain  in  Birch,  i,  413. 
In  view  of  the  swift  mutations  of  fortune  among  courtiers,  Dudley 
Carleton  the  younger  wrote  on  December  18,  1624,  "  He  is  hap 
piest  who  has  least  to  do  at  court  " — a  truth  which  Calvert  prob 
ably  had  come  to  appreciate  by  that  time. 

"  The  third  man  who  was  thought  to  gain  by  the  Spaniard 
was  Secretary  Calvert ;  and  as  he  was  the  only  secretary  em 
ployed  in  the  Spanish  match,  so  undoubtedly  he  did  what  good 
offices  he  could  therein  for  religion's  sake,  being  infinitely  ad 
dicted  to  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  having  been  converted  there 
unto  by  Count  Gondomar  and  Count  Arundel.  .  .  .  Now  this 
man  did  protest  to  a  friend  of  his  own  that  he  never  got  by  the 
Spaniards  so  much  as  a  pair  of  pockets  ;  which  it  should  seem  is 
a  usual  gift  among  them,  being  excellently  perfumed,  and  may 
be  valued  at  twenty  nobles  or  ten  pounds  price."  Goodman's 
Court  of  King  James,  i,  376,  377. 

Whitbourne  gives  these  names.  Those  who  believe  that  Cal 
vert  was  already  actuated  by  religious  zeal,  remind  us  that  Glas- 
tonbury  (by  a  curious  legendary  confusion  of  names)  was  also 
called  Avalon,  and  that  in  the  Christian  legend  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea  began  at  Glastonbury  the  planting  of  the  Christian  religion 
in  Britain.  See  Anderson's  Church  of  England  in  the  Colonies, 
second  edition,  i,  325,  326.  This  interpretation  of  Calvert's  in 
tention  in  naming  his  colony  was  early  given.  British  Museum, 
Sloane  MSS.  XXG.  3662,  folio  24,  date  1670.  When  Calvert's 
first  colony  was  sent  out  the  Scotch  settlement  in  Newfound 
land  was  of  twelve  years'  standing,  while  the  Bristol  colony  had 
been  seated  there  five  years.  Calvert's  enterprise  seems  to  have 
been  pushed  with  more  energy  and  with  a  more  liberal  expendi 
ture  than  its  predecessors.  Compare  Whitbourne  passim  with 
the  statement  of  Sir  William  Alexander  in  his  Encouragement 
to  Colonies,  1624,  p.  25. 

Among  the  papers  at  Landsdowne  House  which  I  was  per 
mitted  to  examine  by  the  kindness  of  Lord  Edmund  Fitzmaurice, 
there  is  an  unpublished  work  by  James  Abercromby,  written  in 
1752.  It  discusses  with  acuteness  the  nature  of  the  several 
colonial  governments.  I  shall  refer  to  it  hereafter  under  the 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


259 


title  of  Abercromby's  Examination,  Landsdowne  House,  47. 
Abercromby  was,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  first  to  point  out  the  ap 
parently  intentional  ambiguity  of  the  passages  in  the  Maryland 
charter  that  have  to  do  with  religion. 

It  is  interesting  that  in  1622,  the  year  preceding  the  division 
of  New  England  by  lot,  three  shares  were  laid  off  and  no  more. 
They  were  at  the  extreme  north  of  the  territory  divided  the  next 
year,  and  were  assigned  respectively  to  the  Duke  of  Lenox,  the 
Earl  of  Arundel,  and  Sir  George  Calvert.  A  "grand  patent" 
was  then  in  preparation  for  a  colony  on  the  coast  of  Maine  to  be 
called  Nova  Albion.  Calendar  Colonial  Documents,  July  24, 
1622.  It  seems  probable,  from  the  charter  of  Avalon,  that  Cal 
vert  intended  it  to  be  a  colony  that  should  harbor  Catholics,  but 
on  the  other  hand  the  first  settlers  were  chiefly  Protestants,  with 
a  clergyman  of  their  own  faith,  and  there  seem  to  have  been  few 
Romanists  or  none  in  Avalon  until  the  arrival  of  a  company  with 
the  lord  proprietary  in  1627. 

Fuller's  oft-quoted  account  of  the  circumstances  of  Calvert's 
resignation,  Worthies,  Nuttall's  edition,  iii,  417,  418,  gives  prob 
ably  the  commonly  received  story,  and  shows  that  the  religious 
motive  was  popularly  accepted  as  the  reason  for  his  leaving 
office.  Archbishop  Abbot  was  better  informed  though  less 
impartial.  His  letter  is  in  the  curious  work  entitled  "  The 
Negotiations  of  Sir  Thomas  Roe  in  his  Embassy  to  the  Ottoman 
Porte  from  the  Year  1621  to  1628,"  etc.,  published  in  1740. 
Abbot  says  :  "  Mr.  secretary  Calvert  hath  never  looked  merily 
since  the  prince  his  coming  out  of  Spaine :  it  was  thought  hee 
was  muche  interested  in  the  Spanishe  affaires :  a  course  was 
taken  to  ridde  him  of  all  imployments  and  negotiations.  This 
made  him  discontented  ;  and,  as  the  saying  is,  Desperatio  facit 
tnonachum,  so  hee  apparently  did  turne  papist,  whiche  hee  now 
professeth,  this  being  the  third  time  that  hee  hath  bene  to  blame 
that  way.  His  Majesty  to  dismisse  him,  suffered  him  to  resigne 
his  Secretaries  place  to  Sir  Albertus  Moreton,  who  payed  him 
three  thousand  pounds  for  the  same  ;  and  the  kinge  hath  made 
him  baron  of  Baltimore  in  Ireland  ;  so  hee  is  withdrawn  from  vs, 
and  having  bought  a  ship  of  400  tuns,  hee  is  going  to  New  Eng 
land,  or  Newfoundlande,  where  hee  hath  a  colony."  Page  372. 
The  letters  preserved  among  the  state  papers  are  the  main 
authority,  especially  those  addressed  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  who 
desired  to  buy  Calvert's  place.  See,  passim,  the  Calendar  of 


GHAP.  I. 


Note  5, 
page  226. 


Note  6, 
page  228. 


260 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony -Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Note  7, 
page  229. 


Domestic  Papers  for  1624  and  1625  to  February  I2th.  The  cir 
cumstantial  account  given  in  the  Salvetti  correspondence,  though 
cited  as  authority  by  Mr.  Gardiner,  has  never  been  printed,  for 
which  reason  it  is  here  given  in  the  original  from  the  British 
Museum  Additional  MSS.  27962  C. :  "  II  Signer  Cavalier  Calvert 
primo  Segretario  et  Consigliero  cli  Stato,  credendosi,  doppo  la 
rottura  de'  trattati,  che  si  haveva  con  Spagna,  (che  per  comanda- 
mento  di  sua  Maesta  haveva  lui  solo  maneggiati,)  d'essere  eclip- 
sato  nell'  oppinione  del  Sigr.  Principe  et  Signer  Duca,  et  di  non 
essere  piii  impiegato  con  quella  confidenza,  che  solevano  ricorse 
pochi  giorni  sono  dal  Signor  Duca  di  Buchingam  per  fargli  inten- 
dere  la  sua  risolutione,  la  quale  era,  che  vedendo  di  non  potere 
godere  della  buona  grazia  dell'  Eccellenza  sua  nella  medesima 
forma  che  godeva  avanti  della  sua  andata  in  Spagna  era  risoluto 
di  rittrarsi  dalla  Corte,  et  di  mettere  in  sua  mano,  come  di  pre- 
sente  faceva,  la  sua  carica,  perche"  ne  disponasse  ovonque  le 
piacesse  con  molte  altre  parole  tutte  piene  di  valore  et  magna- 
nimita :  soggiugnendoli  di  piu  come  dicono,  che  essendo  risoluto 
per  1'avvenire  di  vivere  et  morire  Cattolicamente,  conosceva  di 
non  poterlo  fare  nel  servizio  dove  era  senza  gelosia  dello  stato  et 
pericolo  del  Parlamento.  II  Signor  Duca  ancorche  non  amasse 
questo  Cavaliero,  ne  nessuno  altro  che  ha  hauto  le  mani  nel  pa- 
rentado  di  Spagna,  con  tutto  cio  vedendo  un  atto  cosi  honorato, 
gli  rispose :  che  non  potera  negare  che  non  gli  fusse  stato  da 
non  so  che  tempo  in  qua  nemico  ;  ma  che  hora  vedendo  la  fran- 
chezza  et  nobilta  d'animo,  col  rispetto  che  gli  haveva  mostrato, 
1'abracciava  per  amico,  per  mostrargliene  gli  effeti,  sempre  che 
ne  havesse  occasione,  con  assicuratione  de  piu  che  operrebbe 
con  sua  Maesta  gli  fusse  confermato  le  suoi  pensioni,  et  di  piu 
dato  honorevole  ricompensa  per  la  sua  carica  di  segretario.  Et 
che  quanto  alia  sua  religione  egli  1'havrebbe  protetto  quanto 
fusse  mai  stato  possibile,"  etc.  Salvetti,  Correspondence,  iii, 
February  6,  1624-2$. 

The  letter  of  the  28th  February  (O.  S.)  in  the  same  volume 
gives  an  account  of  the  formal  resignation  to  the  king,  and  states 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  money  paid  to  Calvert  was  from  his 
successor,  and  that  it  was  paid  denari  contanti,  "  cash  down," 
and  adds  sympathetically  that  "this  good  lord  will  be  able  to 
live  easily  and  quietly  "  hereafter. 

Calvert  attributes  his  deception  to  interested  letters.  The 
principal  motives  to  settle  in  Newfoundland  may  be  seen  by  the 


Catholic  Migration. 


261 


reader  who  has  patience  enough  to  thread  his  way  through  the 
jumble  of  mythology,  allegory,  political  economy  of  a  certain 
sort,  verse  in  English  and  Latin,  theology,  satire,  and  an  incredi 
ble  number  of  what-nots  besides  "  for  the  generall  and  perpetuall 
good  of  Great  Britain,"  found  in  Vaughan's  Golden  Fleece,  pub 
lished  in  1626.  The  nearness  of  Newfoundland  to  Ireland  and 
the  comparative  cheapness  of  transportation  thither,  but  espe 
cially  the  well-established  value  of  its  fisheries  and  the  market 
they  afforded  for  the  produce  of  the  colony,  were  the  most  plausi 
ble  reasons  for  settling  a  colony  there.  Probably  there  was  a 
lurking  purpose  to  turn  the  shore  fishery  into  a  monopoly  such 
as  was  contemplated  by  projectors  for  the  New  England  coast. 
The  fact  was  insisted  upon  that  part  of  Newfoundland  was 
"equal  in  climate,"  or  at  least  in  latitude,  to  "  Little  Britain  in 
France,"  or  Brittany.  Then,  too,  Newfoundland  is  an  island,  and 
Vaughan  at  least  persuaded  himself  that  "  Ilanders  should  dwel 
in  Hands."  As  some  of  the  apostles  were  fishermen,  "  New 
foundland  the  grand  port  of  Fishing  was  alloted  to  Professors 
of  the  Gospell."  Golden  Fleece,  Part  Third,  pp.  5  and  6  and 
passim* 

Lord  Baltimore  may  have  had  the  governorship  of  Virginia  in 
view.  Cecilius,  his  son,  sought  to  have  himself  made  governor 
in  1637.  Colonial  Papers,  ix,  45,  Record  Office.  See  an  earlier 
communication  on  the  same  subject  in  Sainsbury,  246,  under  the 
date  of  February  25,  1637.  It  is  almost  the  only  petition  of  the 
second  Lord  Baltimore  that  was  not  granted.  See  also  section 
xvii  of  the  present  chapter,  and  note  21  below. 

I  have  ventured  to  conjecture  so  much  on  evidence  not 
complete.  Father  White,  who  was  cordially  entertained  by  the 
Governor  of  St.  Kitts  in  1634,  speaks  of  the  people  of  Montser- 
rat  as  "  puisos  ab  anglis  Virginias  ob  fidei  Catholicae  profes- 
sionem."  White's  choice  of  words  does  not  necessarily  imply,  I 
suppose,  an  actual  banishment  from  Virginia,  but  at  least  a  re 
fusal  of  permission  to  come.  Neither  Edwards  nor  Oldmixon 
mention  this  fact ;  but  as  White  visited  St.  Kitts  only  two  years 
after  the  settlement  at  Montserrat,  which  was  made  immediately 
from  St.  Kitts  (according  to  Edwards)  and  was  subject  to  the 
same  governor,  his  information  was  doubtless  correct.  There 
seems  to  have  been  another  project  to  plant  Catholics  in  Vir 
ginia  about  this  time,  unless,  as  is  rather  probable,  we  meet 
the  same  plan  in  another  form.  Sir  Pierce  Crosby  offered  to 


CHAP.  I. 


Note  8, 
page  230. 


Note  9, 
page  231. 


262 


Centrifugal  Forces  in   Colony-Planting. 


plant  ten  companies  "  of  the  Irish  Regiment  into  a  fruitful  part 
of  America  not  yet  inhabited."  To  make  the  proposal  acceptable, 
it  was  stated,  somewhat  diplomatically  perhaps,  that  the  major 
part  of  the  officers  and  many  of  the  soldiers  were  Protestants. 
Sainsbury's  Calendar,  p.  95,  where  the  conjectural  date  is  1628. 

The  translation  quoted  is  that  published  by  Cecilius  Calvert 
in  the  Relation  of  1635.  The  original  reads  :  "  Unacum  licencia 
et  facultate  Ecclesias  Capellas  et  Oratoria  in  locis  infra  premissa 
congruis  et  idoneis  Extrucndi  et  fundandi  eaque  dedicari  et  sacrari 
juxta  leges  Ecclesiasticas  regni  nostri  Anglic  facendas."  Mary 
land  Archives. 

Sir  Edward  Northey,  Attorney-General  of  England  in  the 
following  century,  gave  this  decision  :  "As  to  the  said  clause  in 
the  grant  of  the  province  of  Maryland,  I  am  of  opinion  the  same 
doth  not  give  him  power  to  do  anything  contrary  to  the  ecclesi 
astical  laws  of  England."  This  is  as  ingeniously  ambiguous  as 
the  clause  itself.  The  attorneys-general  and  solicitors-general 
during  the  eighteenth  century  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  sub 
ordinating  colonial  government  to  parliamentary  authority  by  a 
series  of  opinions  in  which  they  make  rather  than  explain  law. 
In  the  present  instance  Northey  was  more  modest  than  usual,  for 
he  reaches  a  purely  negative  and  impotent  conclusion,  which 
Neill  turns  into  a  positive  one  in  his  text.  Founders  of  Mary 
land,  99.  There  is  a  collection  of  opinions  on  colonial  subjects 
rendered  by  the  attorneys  and  solicitors-general  in  the  first  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  a  volume  at  Landsdowne  House 
which  I  have  examined.  This  collection  was  made,  or  at  least 
furnished,  for  the  use  of  Lord  Shelburne.  Before  Northey's 
opinion  was  given  the  English  Parliament  had  assumed  power  to 
override  some  provisions  of  the  Maryland  charter,  as  is  pointed 
out  in  Abercromby's  Examination,  MS.  at  Landsdowne  House, 
47.  How  slowly  the  Church  of  England  grew  in  the  colony  may 
be  inferred  from  the  statement  made  in  1677,  that  four  clergymen 
have  plantations  and  settled  "  beings  "  of  their  own — a  phrase 
sufficiently  obscure.  Others  were  sustained  by  voluntary  contri 
butions.  Colonial  Papers,  No.  49,  Record  Office,  folios  54,  55. 
This  is  Baltimore's  reply  to  the  paper  at  folio  56,  the  order  of 
which  is  evidently  reversed.  The  population  of  the  province, 
it  is  stated,  was  composed  at  that  time  chiefly  of  dissenters 
of  various  sects,  Catholics  and  Anglicans  being  the  smallest 
bodies. 


The  Catliolic  Migration. 


263 


As  early  as  1752  it  was  remarked  that  the  Maryland  charter 
contained  "  the  most  extensive  power  of  any  charter  in  Brit 
ish  America."  Abercromby's  Examination,  MS.,  Landsdowne 
House.  In  Collier's  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Great  Britain,  vol. 
ix,  is  the  writ  of  Edward  III,  A.  D.  1327,  by  which  the  regalities 
of  the  bishopric  of  Durham  are  confirmed  after  a  trial  in  parlia 
ment. 

Cecilius,  Lord  Baltimore,  wrote  to  Strafford,  10  January, 
i633~'34,  that  he  had  sent  "  a  hopeful  colony  into  Maryland  with 
a  fair  and  probable  Expectation  of  Success,  however  without 
Danger  of  any  great  prejudice  unto  myself,  in  Respect  that  many 
others  are  joined  with  me  in  the  Adventure  " — that  is,  in  the  finan 
cial  risk.  Strafford  Papers,  i,  179.  Twenty  years  later  Crom 
well  writes  to  Bennet,  Governor  of  Virginia,  "  We  have  therefore 
at  the  request  of  Lord  Baltimore  and  of  divers  other  persons  of 
quality  here  who  are  engaged  in  great  adventures  in  his  interest," 
etc.  Thurloe,  i,  724.  A  tradition  of  this  co-operation  may  have 
remained  in  Maryland  a  century  later,  for  in  1755  or  !756  there 
was  presented  to  the  Lord  Baltimore  of  that  day,  who  was  a 
Protestant,  a  petition  from  Roman  Catholic  residents  of  Mary 
land  in  which  this  assertion  occurs  :  "  The  money  and  persons  of 
this  persuasion  contributed  chiefly  to  the  settling  and  peopling  of 
this  colony."  British  Museum  MS.  15,489. 

The  statement  of  Father  Henry  More,  in  1642,  that  "  in  lead 
ing  the  colony  to  Maryland  by  far  the  greater  number  were  here 
tics,"  is  not  conclusive,  though  it  is  relied  on  by  General  Bradley 
T.  Johnson  and  others.  More  was  Provincial  of  the  Jesuits  in 
England,  and  he  is  no  doubt  repeating  loosely  the  information 
contained  in  Father  White's  letter  of  the  year  before,  which  says, 
"  Whereas  three  parts  of  the  people  in  four  at  least  are  heretics  " 
— a  statement  true,  no  doubt,  in  1641,  when  the  Kent  Islanders 
and  newcomers  were  counted,  but  not  true,  probably,  of  the  com 
pany  of  1634,  as  Bancroft  seems  to  say. 

The  original  document  is  in  the  Stoneyhurst  MSS.,  Anglia, 
vol.  iv.  It  is  reprinted  in  full  in  General  Bradley  T.  Johnson's 
"  The  Foundation  of  Maryland."  It  tends  to  show  that  the  emi 
gration  of  many  recusants  was  confidently  expected. 

"  Nubes,  terrificum  in  morem  excresentes,  terrori  erant  intu- 
entibus  antequam  discinderentur  :  et  opinionem  faciebant  pro- 
diisse  adversum  nos  in  aciem,  omnes  spiritus  tempestatum  male- 
ficas,  et  malos  genios  omnes  Marylandiae."  Relatio  Itineris,  15. 


CHAP.  I. 

Note  12, 
page  236. 


Note  13, 
page  240. 


Note  14, 
page  242. 


Note  15, 
page  242. 


Note  16, 
page  243. 


264 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting 


See  passim,  Letters  of  Missionaries.  A  letter  of  Copley,  the 
Jesuit,  to  Lord  Baltimore,  in  Calvert  Papers,  p.  165,  implies  the 
possibility  of  Catholic  incumbents  of  Maryland  parishes.  He  is 
complaining  of  the  law  of  the  Assembly  of  1638  relating  to  glebe 
land  :  "  In  euery  Manner  100  acres  must  be  laid  out  for  Gleabe 
lande,  if  then  the  intention  to  bind  them  to  be  pastors  who  en 
joy  it,  we  must  either  by  retaining  so  much  euen  of  our  owne 
land  undertake  the  office  of  pastors  or  lesse  euen  in  our  owne 
Mannor  maintaine  pastors,  both  which  to  us  would  be  uery  In- 
conuenient." 

Letters  of  Missionaries,  p.  77.  "  The  Catholics  who  live  in 
the  colony  are  not  inferior  in  piety  to  those  who  live  in  other 
countries  ;  but  in  urbanity  of  manners,  according  to  the  judg 
ment  of  those  who  have  visited  the  other  colonies,  are  considered 
far  superior  to  them."  More  than  a  hundred  years  later  the 
Catholics  retained  a  superiority,  according  to  Updike's  Appendix 
to  McSparran,  1752  :  "The  Catholics,  having  the  start  in  point 
of  time  of  the  after  settlers,  are  also  to  this  day  ahead  of  them 
in  wealth  and  substance  ;  by  which  means  the  first  and  best  fami 
lies  are  for  the  most  part  still  of  the  Roman  communion,"  p.  492. 

The  act  passed  in  1704  was  renewed  in  1715  and  still  in  force 
in  1749.  I  cite  from  Ogle's  Account  of  Maryland,  of  the  latter 
date,  a  manuscript  at  Landsdowne  House,  numbered  45,  folio 
199.  In  No.  6 1  at  Landsdowne  House  is  a  decision  of  the  At 
torney-General  in  England  in  1605  that  Jesuits  may  be  expelled 
from  Maryland  by  order  of  the  queen  if  aliens,  but  not  if  they  are 
subjects.  The  various  eighteenth-century  enactments  against 
Catholics  will  be  found  in  Bacon's  Laws  of  Maryland,  passim. 
MS.  15,489,  British  Museum,  cites  some  of  these  severe  laws  and 
the  proceedings  taken  under  them.  Strong  petitions  against 
these  measures  were  signed  by  Charles  Carroll  and  others. 

Gabriel  Hawley,  Robert  Evelin,  and -Jerome  Hawley,  appointed 
to  places  in  Virginia,  appear  to  have  been  Catholics  and  partisans 
of  Baltimore.  Aspinwall  Papers,  i,  page  101,  note. 

Baltimore's  letter  bears  date  February  25,  1637,  and  is  in  the 
Record  Office,  Colonial  Papers,  xiv,  No.  42.  The  memorial  ap 
parently  sent  with  it  is  No.  49  in  the  same  volume.  Baltimore 
proposes  to  reward  Windebank  for  his  assistance,  and  he  sets 
down  the  very  manner  in  which  the  secretary  is  to  approach  the 
king  with  a  diplomatic  falsehood.  Both  the  letter  and  memorial 


The  Catholic  Migration. 


265 


are   printed    in    Maryland    Archives,    Council   Proceedings,    pp. 
41,  42. 

The  act  was  one  of  those  that  for  some  reason  ot  expediency 
was  never  read  a  third  time,  but  was  condensed  into  what  would 
now  be  called  an  omnibus  bill.  The  act  is  given  in  Bacon's 
Laws,  and  is  compared  by  Bozman  with  Magna  Charta.  Boz- 
man  regards  this  law  of  1639  as  an  attempt  to  establish  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion. 

A  copy  of  the  ordinance  as  printed  separately  at  the  time  is 
in  the  Lenox  Library.  It  is  reprinted  in  Churchill's  Voyages, 
viii,  776. 

It  is  extremely  curious  that,  in  the  letters  of  one  of  the  Jesuits 
reporting  the  attack  upon  them  in  1645,  he  should  have  used  an 
expressive  word  hitherto  supposed  to  be  very  modern  and  Amer 
ican.  He  says  that  the  assault  was  made  "  by  a  party  of '  rowdies  ' 
or  marauders."  From  the  way  in  which  the  sentence  is  printed 
in  the  Records  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  iii,  387,  I  suppose  that  in 
the  original  manuscript  the  English  word  "rowdies"  is  given 
and  explained  by  a  Latin  equivalent. 

Charles,  the  third  Lord  Baltimore,  writes  in  defense  of  the 
Maryland  policy  of  toleration  under  date  of  March  26,  1678: 
"  That  at  the  first  planteing  of  this  Provynce  of  my  ffather — 
Albeit  he  had  an  absolute  Liberty  given  to  him  and  his  heires 
to  carry  thither  any  Persons  out  of  any  the  Dominions  that  be 
longed  to  the  Crown  of  England  that  should  be  found  Wylling 
to  goe  thither,  yett  when  he  comes  to  make  use  of  this  Liberty 
He  found  very  few  who  were  inclyned  to  goe  and  seat  themselves 
in  those  parts  But  such  as  for  some  Reasons  or  other  could  not 
Lyve  with  ease  in  other  places,  And  of  these  a  great  parte  were 
such  as  could  not  conforme  in  all  particulars  to  the  severall  Lawes 
of  England  relateing  to  Religion.  Many  there  were  of  this  sort  of 
people  who  declared  their  Wyllingness  to  goe  and  Plant  them 
selves  In  this  Provynce  soe  as  they  might  have  a  generall  toleracon 
settled  there  by  a  Lawe  by  which  all  of  all  sorts  that  professed 
Christianity  in  Generall  might  be  at  liberty  to  worship  God  in 
such  manner  as  was  most  agreeable  with  their  respective  Judg 
ments  and  Consciences  without  being  Subject  to  any  Penaltyes 
whatever  for  their  soe  doing."  Colonial  Papers,  vol.  xlix,  Rec 
ord  Office.  Compare  Leah  and  Rachel,  p.  23,  where  the  author 
also  implies  that  the  Act  of  Toleration  was  a  concession  to  Puri 
tan  demands. 


CHAP.  1. 


Note  22, 
page  251. 


Note  23, 
page  252. 

Note  24, 
page  254. 


Note  25, 
page  256. 


CHAPTER   THE    SECOND. 

THE  PROPHET  OF  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM. 


BOOK  III. 

Centrifu 
gal  forces 
in  Massa 
chusetts. 


I. 

THE  centrifugal  force  of  religious  differences 
acted  with  disastrous  results  in  Maryland,  because 
the  Catholic  party,  which  had  always  a  control 
ling  negative  there  through  the  proprietary,  was 
in  the  minority.  The  Massachusetts  people,  on 
the  other  hand,  were  fairly  homogeneous  in  re 
ligious  opinion,  and  their  government  was  admira 
bly  compacted.  In  Massachusetts  religious  senti 
ment  was  a  powerful  centripetal  force.  Magistrates 
and  ministers  were  nicely  poised,  and  each  order 
relied  upon  the  other  to  maintain  existing  condi 
tions.  If  the  magistrates  were  perplexed  or  were 
seriously  opposed,  the  elders  were  called  in  to  ad 
vise  or  to  lend  a  powerful  ecclesiastical  sanction  to 
the  rulers.  When  any  disturbance  of  church  order 
was  threatened,  the  magistrates  came  to  the  front 
and  supported  the  clergy  with  the  sharp  smiting 
of  the  secular  arm.  In  the  magistracy  and  in  the 
ranks  of  the  clergy  were  men  of  unusual  prudence 
and  ability.  If  the  little  Puritan  commonwealth 
seemed  a  frail  canoe  at  first,  it  was  navigated — con 
sidering  its  smallness  one  might  rather  say  it  was 

paddled — most  expertly.     But  in  Massachusetts,  as 

266 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


267 


well  as  in  Maryland,  religious  opinion  was  the  main 
source  of  disturbance.  The  all-pervading  ferment 
of  the  time  could  not  be  arrested,  and  more  than 
once  it  produced  explosion.  Now  one  and  now 
another  prophet  of  novelty  or  prophet  of  retro 
gression  arose  to  be  dealt  with  for  religious  errors ; 
there  were  divergences  from  the  strait  path  of 
Puritanism  in  the  direction  of  a  return  to  Church 
of  England  usage,  divergences  in  the  direction  of 
extreme  Separatism,  in  the  direction  of  the  ever- 
dreaded  "  Anabaptism,"  in  the  direction  of  Arian- 
ism,  and  of  so-called  Antinomianism.  In  the  case 
of  the  Antinomians,  the  new  movement  was  able  to 
shelter  itself  under  the  authority  of  the  younger 
Vane,  then  governor,  and  for  a  while  under  the 
apparent  sanction  of  the  powerful  Cotton.  But  no 
other  religious  disturbance  was  ever  allowed  to 
gather  head  enough  to  become  dangerous  to  the 
peace  and  unity  of  the  little  state.  Dislike  as  we  may 
the  principles  on  which  uniformity  was  enforced, 
we  must  admire  the  forehanded  statesmanship  of 
the  Massachusetts  leaders  in  strangling  religious 
disturbances  at  birth,  as  Pharaoh's  midwives  did 
infant  Hebrews. 

II. 

One  of  the  most  formidable  of  all  those  who 
ventured  to  assail  the  compact  phalanx  presented 
by  the  secular  and  religious  authorities  of  Massa 
chusetts  was  Roger  Williams.  Williams  was  the 
son  of  a  merchant  tailor  of  London.  He  mani- 


268 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


fested  in  boyhood  that  quickness  of  apprehension 
which  made  him  successful  in  acquiring  languages 
later  in  life.  Before  he  was  fifteen  the  precocious 
lad  was  employed  in  the  Star  Chamber  in  taking 
notes  of  sermons  and  addresses  in  shorthand,  and 
his  skill  excited  the  surprise  and  admiration  of  Sir 
Edward  Coke.  Coke  had  found  time,  in  the  midst 
of  a  tempestuous  public  career  and  the  arduous 
private  studies  that  brought  him  permanent  re 
nown,  to  defend  the  legacy  which  founded  the 
new  Sutton's  Hospital,  later  known  as  the  Charter- 
House  School.  Of  this  school  he  was  one  of  the 
governors,  and  he  appointed  young  Roger  Wil 
liams  to  a  scholarship  there,  Williams  being  the 
second  pupil  that  ever  gained  admission  to  that 
nursery  of  famous  men.  His  natural  inclination 
to  industry  in  his  studies  was  quickened  by  the 
example  and  encouragement  of  Coke,  who  was  wont 
to  say  that  he  who  would  harrow  what  Roger  Wil 
liams  had  sown  must  rise  early.  From  the  Charter 
House  Williams  went  to  Pembroke  College,  Cam 
bridge.  He  early  manifested  sincere  piety  and  a 
tendency  to  go  to  extremes  in  his  Puritan  scruples. 
Even  in  his  father's  house  he  had  begun  to  taste 
the  bitterness  of  persecution.  His  eager  temper 
transformed  his  convictions  into  downright  pas 
sions;  his  integrity  was  an  aggressive  force,  and 
there  was  a  precipitation  in  his  decisions  and  ac 
tions  that  was  trying  to  his  friends.  From  an  early 
period  he  showed  a  conscience  intolerant  of  pru 
dent  compromises.  Puritanism  had  contrived  to 


The  Prophet  of  Religions  Freedom. 


269 


exist  and  to  grow  to  formidable  strength  within 
the  church  by  means  of  such  compromises.  Hooker 
and  Cotton,  two  of  the  greatest  luminaries  of  that 
party  and  afterward  the  lights  that  lightened  New 
England,  one  day  urged  on  the  impetuous  Williams 
the  propriety  of  temporarily  conforming  in  the  use 
of  the  common  prayer.  By  conceding  so  much  to 
the  judgment  of  his  revered  elders,  Williams  would 
have  removed  the  only  obstacle  to  his  advance 
ment,  for  preferment  was  offered  to  the  clever  and 
exemplary  protege  of  Coke  in  the  universities,  in 
the  city,  in  the  country,  and  at  court.  But  neither 
interest  nor  example  could  sway  the  impractical 
young  minister.  He  took  refuge,  like  other  ex 
treme  Puritans,  in  a  private  chaplaincy,  and  re 
fused  all  compromise,  in  order,  as  he  afterward 
declared,  to  keep  his  "soul  undefiled  in  this 
point  and  not  to  act  with  a  doubting  conscience." 
Most  men  feel  bound  to  obey  conscience  only 
where  it  clearly  commands  or  forbids  ;  good  men 
may  act  on  the  balance  of  probabilities  where  there 
is  doubt ;  but  this  young  man  would  not  do  any 
thing  concerning  which  his  moral  judgment  felt 
the  slightest  halting.  Here  is  the  key  to  his  whole 
career ;  his  strength  lay  in  his  aspiration  for  a  soul 
undefiled  ;  his  weakness,  in  that  he  was  ever  a  vic 
tim  to  the  pampered  conscience  of  an  ultraist. 
Property  of  some  thousands  of  pounds,  that  might 
have  been  his  had  he  been  willing  to  make  oath  in 
the  form  required  in  chancery,  he  renounced  to 
his  scruples.  It  certainly  seemed  rash  in  a  young 


2/O 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


man  just  setting  out  in  life,  with  a  young  wife  to 
care  for,  to  indulge  in  such  extravagant  luxury  of 
scruple. 

III. 

Laud  succeeded  in  hunting  the  non-conforming 
Puritans  from  their  lectureships  and  chaplaincies. 
It  became  with  Williams  no  longer  a  question  of 
refusing  preferments  on  both  hands  with  lavish 
self-denial,  but  of  escaping  the  harsh  penalties  re 
served  for  such  as  he  by  the  Courts  of  High  Com 
mission  and  the  Star  Chamber.  There  was  nothing 
left  but  to  betake  himself  to  New  England  for 
safety.  He  fled  hurriedly  across  country  on  horse 
back,  feeling  it  "  as  bitter  as  death  "  that  he  dared 
not  even  say  farewell  to  his  great  patron  Sir  Ed 
ward  Coke,  who  detested  schism. 

Here,  as  in  after  life,  the  supreme  hardship  he 
suffered  was  not  mere  exile,  but  that  exile  of  the 
spirit  which  an  affectionate  man  feels  when  he  is 
excommnuicate  of  those  he  loves.  His  escape  by 
sea  was  probably  the  more  difficult  because  he  was 
unwilling  to  " swallow  down"  the  oath  exacted  of 
those  who  emigrated.  But  he  succeeded  in  sailing 
with  his  young  wife,  and  in  1631  this  undefiled  soul, 
this  dauntless  and  troublesome  extremist,  landed  in 
New  England.  He  was  invited  to  become  one  of 
the  ministers  of  the  Boston  church.  But  Williams 
was  conscientiously  a  Separatist,  and  he  refused  to 
enter  into  communion  with  the  Boston  congrega 
tion  because  of  its  position  with  reference  to  the 
church  in  England. 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


271 


This  protest  by  withdrawal  of  communion  was 
a  fundamental  principle  of  Separatism.  It  was  not, 
as  it  appears  on  the  surface,  a  manifestation  of  un- 
charitableness  toward  persons,  but  a  solemn  protest 
by  act  in  favor  of  a  principle.  Never  was  any 
man  more  forgiving,  long-suffering,  and  charitable 
toward  opponents  than  Williams,  but  never  was  a 
man  less  inclined  to  yield  a  single  jot  in  the  direc 
tion  of  compromise  where  his  convictions  were  in 
volved,  whatever  might  be  the  evils  sure  to  result 
from  his  refusal. 

IV. 

Williams  repaired  first  to  Salem,  the  north 
pole  of  Puritanism,  where  the  pioneer  church  of 
Massachusetts  had  a  more  Separatist  tone  than 
any  other.  In  the  phrase  of  the  time,  no  other 
churches  in  the  world  were  so  "pure"  as  the  New 
England  churches,  and  Salem  was  accounted  the 
"  purest "  church  in  New  England.  Its  surviving 
minister,  Skelton,  and  its  principal  layman,  Ende- 
cott,  both  tended  to  extreme  Congregationalism ; 
but  the  General  Court  of  the  colony  protested 
against  the  selection  of  Williams  to  be  one  of  the 
ministers  of  the  Salem  church.  Skelton's  Separa 
tist  tendencies,  Endecott's  impetuous  radicalism, 
and  Salem's  jealous  rivalry  with  the  younger  town 
of  Boston,  were  already  sources  of  anxiety  to  the 
rulers.  The  addition  of  Williams  to  these  explo 
sive  forces  was  alarming.  Williams's  ecclesiastical 
ideals  were  not  those  which  the  leaders  of  the 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  4. 


Williams 
at  Salem. 


2/2 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Win- 

throp's 
Journal,  i, 
63,  i 2th 
April,  1631. 


Note  5. 


Williams 
at  Plym 
outh. 


colony  had  devoted  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  es 
tablish.  Had  this  young  radical  been  less  consci 
entious,  less  courageous,  less  engagingly  good  and 
admirable,  there  would  not  have  been  so  much 
reason  to  fear  him.  A  letter  was  written  to  Ende- 
cott  protesting  against  Williams's  ordination,  be 
cause  he  had  refused  communion  with  the  church 
at  Boston,  and  because  he  denied  the  power  of  the 
magistrate  to  enforce  duties  of  the  first  table — that 
is,  duties  of  religion.  Here  at  the  very  outset  of 
his  American  life  we  find  that  Williams  had  already 
embraced  the  broad  principle  that  involved  the 
separation  of  church  and  state  and  the  most  com 
plete  religious  freedom,  and  had  characteristically 
pushed  this  principle  to  its  logical  result  some 
centuries  in  advance  of  the  practice  of  his  age. 
The  protest  of  the  court  prevented  his  ordination. 
He  yielded  to  the  opposition  and  soon  after  re 
moved  to  Plymouth,  where  the  people  were  Sepa 
ratists,  modified  by  the  conservative  teachings  of 
John  Robinson,  somewhat  modified  also  by  the 
responsibility  of  founding  a  new  state,  and  per 
haps  by  association  with  Puritans  of  the  neighbor 
ing  colony. 

At  Plymouth  the  young  idealist  "  prophesied  " 
in  his  turn,  but  did  not  take  office  in  the  church, 
which  already  had  a  pastor  in  Ralph  Smith,  the 
Separatist,  who  had  been  suffered  to  come  over  in 
a  Massachusetts  ship  only  on  his  giving  a  promise 
not  to  preach  in  that  jurisdiction  without  leave. 
The  congregation  at  Plymouth  was  poor,  and 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


273 


Roger  Williams  mainly  supported  himself  by  hard 
toil  "at  the  hoe  and  the  oar" — that  is,  perhaps,  in 
farming  and  fishing.  His  body  seems  to  have  been 
vigorous,  and  no  physical  fatigue  abated  anything 
of  his  mental  activity.  The  Pilgrims  had  passed 
more  than  twelve  years  in  Holland,  and  almost 
every  adult  in  Plymouth  must  have  known  Dutch. 
Those  of  Roger  Williams's  own  age,  who  were 
children  when  they  migrated  to  Leyden  and  men 
when  they  left,  probably  spoke  it  as  well  as  they 
did  their  mother  tongue.  The  Plymouth  people, 
indeed,  were  styled  "mungrell  Dutch  "a  quarter 
of  a  century  later.  It  is  probable  that  Williams, 
with  his  usual  eagerness  to  acquire  knowledge, 
now  added  Dutch  to  his  stock  of  languages ;  it  is 
certain  that  he  afterward  taught  Dutch  to  John 
Milton.  But  he  was  still  more  intent  on  learning 
the  language  of  the  natives,  that  he  might  do  them 
good.  He  resolved  not  to  accept  office  as  pastor 
or  teacher,  but  to  give  himself  to  work  among 
the  Indians.  Perhaps  his  tendency  to  individual 
ism  made  this  prospect  pleasing  to  him.  He  may 
have  begun  already  to  realize  in  a  half-conscious 
way  that  there  was  scant  room  in  any  organization 
for  such  as  he.  The  learning  of  the  Indian  lan 
guage  was  an  arduous  toil  in  more  ways  than  one. 
"  God  was  pleased  to  give  me  a  painful  patient 
spirit,"  wrote  Williams  long  after,  "to  lodge  with 
them  in  their  filthy,  smoky  holes  to  gain  their 
tongue."  He  afterward  wrote  an  excellent  treatise 

on  the  dialect  of  the  New  England  Indians. 
19 


CHAP.  II. 


Maverick's 
Descrip 
tion  of 

New  Eng 
land,  25. 


Williams 
to  Win- 
throp, 
1632. 


274 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


At  Plymouth  Williams  spoke,  as  he  had  at 
Salem,  without  restraint  from  any  motive  of  expe 
diency  or  even  of  propriety.  Separatist  Plymouth, 
whose  days  of  advance  were  over,  was  a  little  dis 
turbed  by  his  speech.  In  his  own  sweet,  reckless 
way  he  sometimes  sharply  rebuked  even  the  re 
vered  Bradford  when  he  thought  him  at  fault. 
And  in  the  interest  of  the  aborigines  and  of  justice 
Williams  laid  before  Governor  Bradford  a  manu 
script  treatise  which  argued  that  the  king  had  no 
right  to  give  away,  as  he  had  assumed  to  do  in  his 
grants  and  charters,  the  lands  of  the  Indians  merely 
because  he  was  a  Christian  and  they  heathen. 
That  it  was  right  to  wrong  a  man  because  he  was 
not  orthodox  in  belief  could  find  no  place  in  the 
thoughts  of  one  whose  conscience  was  wholly  in 
capable  of  sophistication.  Bradford  accepted  can 
didly  the  rebukes  of  Williams  and  loved  him  for 
his  "  many  precious  parts."  But  as  governor  of  a 
feeble  colony  he  was  disturbed  by  Williams's 
course.  In  spirituality,  unselfish  fearlessness,  and 
a  bold  pushing  of  Separatist  principles  to  their 
ultimate  logical  results,  Roger  Williams  reminded 
the  Pilgrims  of  the  amiable  pastor  of  the  Separatist 
church  in  Amsterdam  whose  change  step  by  step 
to  "  Anabaptism,"  the  great  bugbear  of  theology 
in  that  time,  had  been  a  tragedy  and  a  scandal  to 
the  Separatists  of  Leyden.  Elder  Brewster  feared 
that  Williams  would  run  the  same  course.  Wil 
liams  wished  to  return  to  Salem,  where  he  might 
still  devote  himself  to  the  neighboring  Indians,  and 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


275 


assist  Skelton,  now  declining  in  health.  Brewster 
persuaded  the  Plymouth  church  to  give  him  a 
letter  of  dismissal.  The  leading  Pilgrims  felt 
bound  to  send  "  some  caution "  to  the  Salem 
church  regarding  the  extreme  tendencies  of  Wil 
liams.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  Plymouth 
people  were  so  captivated  by  his  teachings  and 
his  personal  character  that  they  removed  with 
him.  This  following  of  an  approved  minister  was 
common  among  Puritans ;  an  acceptable  preacher 
was  of  as  much  value  to  a  town  as  good  meadows, 
broad  pastures,  and  pure  water. 

v. 

To  understand  the  brief  career  of  Williams  at 
Salem  and  its  catastrophe,  we  must  recall  the 
character  of  colonial  life  in  Massachusetts  at  the 
time.  There  were  already  sixteen  settlements  or 
"  towns  "  on  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  with 
an  indefinite  stretch  of  gloomy  wilderness  for  back 
ground,  the  dwelling  place  of  countless  savages 
and  wild  beasts.  The  population  of  all  the  settle 
ments  may  have  summed  up  five  thousand  people 
— enough  to  have  made  one  prosperous  village. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  various  towns  of  the  bay 
were  from  different  parts  of  England  ;  their  dress 
and  dialect  were  diverse,  and  their  Puritanism  was 
of  various  complexions.  The  town  system,  at  first 
a  reproduction  on  new  soil  of  the  township  field 
communes  that  had  subsisted  in  parts  of  England 
from  ages  beyond  the  fountain  heads  of  tradition, 


CHAP.  II. 

Williams 
returns  to 
Salem. 


The  town 
system. 


276 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Note  6. 


Life  in  the 
Massachu 
setts  set 
tlements. 

1630  to 
1640. 


gave  some  play  to  local  peculiarities  and  preju 
dices.  There  is  evidence  that  the  central  govern 
ment  relieved  itself  from  strain  by  means  of  this 
rural  borough  system.  The  ancient  town  system 
in  turn  appears  to  have  taken  on  a  new  youth ;  it 
was  perhaps  modified  and  developed  by  the  local 
diversity  of  the  people,  and  it  lent  to  Massachu 
setts,  at  first,  something  of  the  elasticity  of  a  fed 
eral  government. 

This  community  of  scattered  communes  was 
cut  off  from  frequent  intercourse  with  the  world, 
for  the  sea  was  far  wider  and  more  to  be  feared  in 
that  day  of  small  ships  and  imperfect  navigation 
than  it  is  now.  The  noise  of  the  English  contro 
versies  in  which  the  settlers  had  once  borne  a  part 
reached  them  at  long  intervals,  like  news  from  an 
other  planet.  But  most  of  the  time  these  lonesome 
settlements  had  no  interest  greater  than  the  petty 
news  and  gossip  of  little  forest  hamlets.  The  vis 
itor  who  came  afoot  along  Indian  trails,  or  by 
water,  paddling  in  a  canoe,  to  Boston  on  lecture 
day,  might  bring  some  news  of  sickness,  accident, 
or  death.  Sometimes  the  traveling  story  was  ex 
citing,  as  that  wolves  had  slaughtered  the  cattle 
at  a  certain  place,  while  yet  cattle  were  few  and 
precious.  Or  still  more  distressing  intelligence 
came  that  the  ruling  elder  of  the  church  at  Water- 
town  had  taken  the  High-church  position  that 
Roman  churches  were  Christian  churches,  or  that 
democratic  views  had  been  advanced  by  Eliot  of 
Roxbury.  A  new  and  far-fetched  prophetical  ex- 


The  PropJict  of  Religions  Freedom. 


277 


planation  of  a  passage  in  the  Book  of  Canticles, 
and  a  tale  of  boatmen  wrecked  in  some  wintry 
tempest,  might  divide  the  attention  of  the  people. 
Stories  of  boats  capsized,  of  boatmen  cast  on  islands 
where  there  was  neither  shelter  nor  food,  of  boats 
driven  far  to  sea  and  heard  of  no  more,  were  sta 
ples  of  excitement  in  these  half-aquatic  towns  ;  and 
if  the  inmates  of  a  doomed  boat  had  been  particu 
larly  profane,  these  events  were  accounted  edify 
ing — divine  judgments  on  the  ungodly.  When  the 
governor  wandered  once  and  lost  himself  in  the 
forest,  passing  the  night  in  a  deserted  wigwam, 
there  was  a  sensation  of  a  half-public  character. 
That  a  snake  and  a  mouse  had  engaged  in  a  battle, 
and  that  the  puny  mouse  had  triumphed  at  last, 
was  in  one  budget  of  traveling  news  that  came  to 
Boston.  To  this  event  an  ominous  significance 
was  given  by  John  Wilson,  pastor  -of  the  Boston 
church,  maker  of  anagrams,  solemn  utterer  of 
rhyming  prophecies  which  were  sometimes  ful 
filled,  and  general  theological  putterer.  Wilson 
made  the  snake  represent  the  devil,  according  to 
all  sound  precedents ;  the  mouse  was  the  feeble 
church  in  the  wilderness,  to  which  God  would 
give  the  victory  over  Satan.  Thus  enhanced  by 
an  instructive  interpretation  from  the  prophet  and 
seer  of  the  colony,  the  story  no  doubt  took  up  its 
travels  once  more,  and  now  with  its  hopeful  exe 
gesis  on  its  back.  The  Massachusetts  mouse  was 
an  auspicious  creature  ;  it  is  recorded  by  the  gov 
ernor,  and  it  was  no  doubt  told  along  the  coast, 


CHAP.  II. 


278 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Self-con 
sciousness 
of  the 
Massachu 
setts  com 
munity. 


Note  7. 


that  one  got  into  a  library  and  committed  depre 
dations  on  a  book  of  common  prayer  only,  nibbling 
every  leaf  of  the  liturgy,  while  it  reverently  spared 
a  Greek  Testament  and  a  Psalter  in  the  same 
covers. 

In  a  petty  state  with  a  range  of  intellectual  in 
terests  so  narrow,  the  conflict  between  Williams 
and  the  General  Court  took  place. 

VI. 

It  was  a  community  that  believed  in  its  own 
divine  mission.  It  traced  the  existence  of  its  set 
tlements  to  the  very  hand  of  God — the  God  who 
led  Israel  out  of  Egypt.  The  New  England  col 
onists  never  forgot  that  they  were  a  chosen  peo 
ple.  Upon  other  American  settlers — the  Dutch 
in  New  Netherland,  the  Virginia  churchmen,  the 
newly  landed  Marylanders,  with  their  admixture 
of  papists — they  looked  with  condescension  if  not 
with  contempt,  accounting  them  the  Egyptians  of 
the  New  World.  The  settlers  on  the  Bay  of 
Massachusetts  were  certain  that  their  providen 
tial  exodus  was  one  of  the  capital  events  in  human 
history ;  that  it  had  been  predesigned  from  eter 
nity  to  plant  here,  in  a  virgin  world,  the  only  true 
form  of  church  government  and  to  cherish  a  church 
that  should  be  a  model  to  the  Old  World  in  turn, 
and  a  kind  of  foreshadowing  of  the  new  heaven 
and  the  new  earth.  Some  dreamed  that  the  sec 
ond  coming  of  Christ  would  take  place  among  the 
rocky  woodlands  of  New  England.  The  theocrat- 


The  Prophet  of  Religions  Freedom. 


2/9 


ical  government  was  thought  to  be  the  one  most 
pleasing  to  God,  and  a  solemn  obligation  was  felt 
to  import  into  this  new  theocracy  the  harsh  Ori 
ental  intolerance  which  had  marked  that  fierce 
struggle  in  which  the  Jewish  tribes  finally  shook 
off  image  worship. 

The  apostle  of  theocracy  who  arrived  soon 
after  Williams's  return  to  Salem  was  John  Cotton, 
a  Puritan  leader  in  England,  in  whom  devoutness 
was  combined  with  extreme  discretion,  a  dominant 
will  with  a  diplomatic  prudence  and  a  temper  never 
ruffled.  Cotton's  ingenious  refinements  made  him 
a  valuable  apologist  in  an  age  of  polemics,  but  they 
often  served  to  becloud  his  vision  of  truth  and 
right.  He  was  prone  to  see  himself  as  he  posed,  in 
the  character  of  a  protagonist  of  truth.  He  gave 
wise  advice  to  the  Massachusetts  Puritans  at  their 
departure  from  England.  When,  a  few  years 
later,  Laud's  penetrating  vigilance  and  relentless 
thoroughness  made  even  Cotton's  well-balanced 
course  of  mild  non-conformity  impossible,  he  fled 
from  his  parish  of  Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  to  Lon 
don,  and  escaped  in  1633  with  difficulty  to  the  new 
Boston  in  New  England.  As  John  Cotton  had 
been  the  shining  candle  of  Puritanism  in  England, 
his  arrival  in  America  was  hailed  with  joy,  and 
from  the  time  of  his  settlement  in  the  little  capital 
his  was  the  hand  that  shaped  ecclesiastical  institu 
tions  in  New  England,  and  he  did  much  also  to 
mold  the  yet  plastic  state.  Though  he  usually 
avoided  the  appearance  of  personal  antagonism, 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


every  formidable  rival  he  had  left  Massachusetts 
early.  Williams,  Hooker,  Davenport,  and  Hugh 
Peter  all  found  homes  beyond  the  bounds  of  the 
colony.  There  can  not  be  two  queen  bees  in  one 
hive,  nor  can  there  well  be  more  than  one  mas 
ter  mind  in  the  ecclesiastical  order  of  a  petty 
theocratic  state.  It  was  the  paradox  of  colonial 
religious  organization  that  the  Episcopal  colonies 
had  parishes  almost  independent  of  all  supervision, 
while  the  New  England  Congregationalists  were, 
from  the  arrival  of  Cotton,  subject  to  the  domi 
nance  of  ministers  who  virtually  attained  to  the 
authority  of  bishops. 

VII. 

Salem,  the  oldest  town  of  the  commonwealth, 
was  the  most  ready  to  pursue  an  independent 
course  and  it  was  attached  to  Williams,  whose  abil 
ity  attracted  new  settlers  and  who  maintained  a 
position  of  independence  toward  Cotton  and  the 
authorities  at  Boston.  To  subdue  the  refractory 
Salem  Avas  no  doubt  one  of  the  secondary  purposes 
of  the  proceedings  against  Williams.  There  seems 
to  have  been  no  personal  animosity  toward  Wil 
liams  himself ;  his  amiable  character  and  his  never- 
doubted  sincerity  were  main  obstacles  to  his  pun 
ishment. 

The  return  of  Roger  Williams  to  such  a  place 
as  Salem  was  naturally  a  matter  of  alarm  to  the 
ministers  and  magistrates  of  Massachusetts.  Col 
lision  was  not  a  matter  of  choice  on  either  side. 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


281 


The  catastrophe  was  like  one  that  comes  from  the 
irresistible  action  of  physical  forces.  In  a  colony 
planted  at  great  cost  to  maintain  one  chosen  form 
of  worship  and  subordinating-  all  the  powers  of 
government  to  this  purpose,  a  preacher  who  as 
serted  the  necessity  for  a  complete  separation  of 
religion  and  government  in  the  interest  of  soul  lib 
erty  had  no  place.  His  ideal  was  higher  than  the 
prevailing  one,  but  that  age  could  not  possibly  rise 
to  it. 

VIII. 

Williams  was  yet  only  a  private  member  of  the 
church  in  Salem,  but  in  the  illness  of  the  pastor  he 
"  exercised  by  way  of  prophecy  " — that  is,  preached 
without  holding  office.  An  alarming  report  was 
soon  in  circulation  that  he  had  written  a  book 
against  the  king's  patent,  the  foundation  of  the 
colonial  authority.  This  treatise,  we  have  said, 
was  written  in  Plymouth  for  the  benefit  of  Gov 
ernor  Bradford.  Like  many  of  the  manuscript 
books  that  have  come  down  to  us,  it  appears  to 
have  been  a  small  quarto,  and,  if  it  resembled  other 
books  of  the  sort,  it  was  neatly  stitched  and  per 
haps  even  bound  by  its  author  in  the  favorite  pig 
skin  of  the  time.  Williams  sent  his  book  promptly 
to  be  examined.  Some  of  the  "  most  judicious 
ministers  much  condemned  Mr.  Williams's  error 
and  presumption,"  and  an  order  was  made  that  he 
"  should  be  convented  at  the  next  court."  In  the 
charges  no  fault  was  found  with  the  main  thesis  of 


CHAP.  II. 


The  book 
against 
the  patent. 


Note  9. 


282 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


the  book,  that  the  king  could  not  claim  and  give 
away  the  lands  of  the  Indians  ;  but  it  was  thought 
that  there  were  disloyal  reflections  cast  upon  both 
James  and  Charles — at  least  those  eager  to  con 
demn  construed  the  obscure  and  "  implicative 
phrases  "  of  Williams  in  that  sense — and  these  sup 
posed  reflections  were  the  subject  of  the  charges. 
Williams  wrote  a  submissive  letter,  and  offered  his 
book,  or  any  part  of  it,  to  be  burned  after  the  man 
ner  of  that  time.  A  month  later,  when  the  gov 
ernor  and  council  met,  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
affair  had  changed.  Cotton  and  Wilson,  the  teacher 
and  the  pastor  of  the  Boston  church,  certified,  after 
examination  of  Williams's  quarto,  that  "  they  found 
the  matters  not  so  evil  as  at  first  they  seemed." 
It  was  decided  to  let  Williams  off  easily.  There 
are  some  things  unexplained  about  the  affair ;  the 
eagerness  of  the  " judicious  ministers"  and  court 
to  condemn  without  due  examination,  the  failure 
even  to  specify  the  objectionable  passages  at  last, 
and  the  unwonted  docility  of  Williams — all  leave 
one  to  infer  that  there  was  more  in  this  transaction 
than  appears.  Laud  and  his  associates  were  mov 
ing  to  have  the  Massachusetts  charter  vacated,  and 
it  may  have  seemed  imprudent  for  the  magistrates 
to  found  their  authority  on  a  base  so  liable  to  dis 
appear.  If  the  charter  had  been  successfully  called 
in,  Williams's  ground  of  the  sufficiency  of  the 
Indian  title  to  lands  might  have  proved  useful  as  a 
last  resort.  Williams  asserted,  long  afterward,  that 
before  his  troubles  began  he  had  drafted  a  letter 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


283 


addressed  to  the  king,  "  not  without  the  approbation 
of  some  of  the  chiefs  of  New  England,"  whose  con 
sciences  were  also  "  tender  on  this  point  before 
God."  This  letter  humbly  acknowledged  "the  evil 
of  that  part  of  the  patent  which  relates  "  to  the  gift 
of  lands.  Had  the  letter  been  sent  to  its  destina 
tion  it  would  have  cut  a  curious  figure  among  the 
worldly-minded  state  papers  of  the  time. 

It  is  probable  that  most  of  the  land  of  the  col 
ony  had  been  secured  from  the  natives  by  purchase 
or  by  treaty  of  some  sort ;  at  least  the  Indians 
were  content,  and  the  little  quarto  had  at  that  time 
no  practical  bearing  whatever,  but  that  did  not 
matter  to  Williams.  The  more  abstract  a  ques 
tion  of  right  and  wrong,  the  more  he  relished  a 
discussion  of  it.  It  was  of  a  piece  with  his  ex 
quisite  Separatism,  a  mere  standing  up  in  the  face 
of  heaven  and  earth  for  an  abstract  principle.  His 
purpose  was  not  to  right  a  specific  and  concrete 
wrong,  for  there  had  been  none,  but  to  assert  as  a 
broad  principle  of  everlasting  application  that  a 
Christian  king  may  not  dispose  of  the  land  owned 
by  heathens  merely  because  of  his  Christianity. 
Williams  was  not  a  judge  or  a  lawgiver;  he  was 
a  poet  in  morals,  enamored  of  perfection,  and  keep 
ing  his  conscience  purer  than  Galahad's. 

IX. 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  i633~'34  that  the  book 
about  the  patent  was  called  in  question.  Skelton, 
pastor  of  Salem,  died  in  the  following  August, 


CHAP.  II. 


Reply  to 
Cotton, 
276,  277. 


An  ab 
stract 
principle. 


The  alarm. 


284 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


and  the  Salem  people,  in  spite  of  an  injunction 
from  the  magistrates,  made  Williams  their  teacher 
in  his  stead.  The  country  was  now  full  of  alarm 
at  news  from  England  that  the  charter  was  to  be 
revoked,  that  a  general  governor  of  New  England 
was  to  be  appointed,  and  that  a  force  was  to  be 
sent  to  support  his  authority.  Laud  was  put  at 
the  head  of  a  commission  for  the  government  of 
the  colonies  in  April,  1634.  There  could  be  no 
doubt  of  the  meaning  of  this  measure.  For  more 
than  a  year  the  alarm  in  Massachusetts  continued. 
The  ministers  were  consulted  regarding  the  law 
fulness  of  resistance  to  force.  A  platform  was  con 
structed  on  the  northeast  side  of  Castle  Island,  and 
a  fortified  house  was  proposed  to  defend  the  plat 
form.  The  trainbands  were  drilled,  muskets, 
"  bandeleroes  "  or  cartridge  belts,  and  rests  were 
distributed  to  the  several  towns,  and  pikemen  were 
required  to  learn  to  use  the  cumbrous  musket 
of  the  time.  Puritans  in  England,  angry  that 
Laud,  the  new  archbishop  and  old  persecutor, 
should  stretch  a  long  arm  to  America,  sent  powder 
and  cannon  to  their  co-religionists,  the  object  of 
whose  military  vigilance  could  easily  be  covered 
by  dangers  from  the  savages,  from  the  French, 
or  from  the  Spaniards. 

But  these  assiduous  preparations,  under  the 
supervision  of  a  military  commission  which  had 
"  power  of  life  and  limb,"  did  not  abate  in  the  least 
the  discussion  of  questions  of  doctrine  and  casuis 
try.  Refinements  of  theology  were  quite  as  real 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


285 


and  substantial  to  the  Puritan  mind  as  trainbands 
and  fortifications.  Sound  doctrine  and  a  scrupu 
lous  observance  of  the  "  ordinances "  conciliated 
God  ;  they  were  indeed  more  important  elements 
of  public  safety  than  drakes  and  demi-culverins. 

The  General  Court  of  September,  1634,  under 
took  to  provide  for  the  public  safety  in  both  re 
spects.  Along  with  regulations  and  provisions  of 
a  military  nature,  it  set  out  to  remove  those  fla 
grant  sins  that  had  provoked  the  divine  wrath. 
The  wearing  of  silver,  gold,  and  rich  laces,  girdles, 
and  hatbands  was  forbidden ;  slashed  clothes  were 
also  abolished,  "  other  than  one  slash  in  each  sleeve 
and  another  in  the  back  " ;  ruffs  and  beaver  hats, 
which  last  were  apparently  a  mark  of  dudishness, 
were  not  to  be  allowed.  Long  hair  and  other 
fashions  "  prejudicial  to  the  general  good  "  were 
done  away  with  in  this  hour  of  penitence.  Men 
and  women  might  wear  out  the  clothes  they  had, 
except  their  "  immoderate  great  sleeves,  slashed 
apparel,  immoderate  great  rayles,  long  wings," 
which  were  to  go  at  once  without  reprieve  or 
ceremony.  The  use  of  tobacco,  socially  and  in 
public,  or  before  strangers  was  made  an  offense. 
If  taken  secretly  or  medicinally,  the  Court  did  not 
take  cognizance  of  it. 

X. 

Seeing  that  the  millinery  sins  recounted  in  this 
act  had  cried  to  Heaven,  and  that,  beside  the  dan 
ger  from  England,  there  was  the  desire  of  Hook- 


CHAP.  II. 


Reform  in 
dress. 


Mass.  Rec 
ords,  3d 
Septem 
ber,  1634. 


Compare 

Ward's 

Simple 

Cobbler, 

passim. 


The  fast- 
day  ser 
mon. 


286 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


er's  party  to  remove  to  the  Connecticut,  and  a 
dissension  concerning  the  power  of  the  Upper 
House  that  threatened  trouble,  the  Court  ap 
pointed  the  1 8th  of  September  a  solemn  fast  day, 
hoping  by  repentance,  prayer,  and  the  penance 
of  hunger  to  avert  the  manifold  disasters  that 
threatened  them.  Roger  Williams  was  sure  to 
speak  like  a  prophet  on  such  an  occasion.  He  did 
not  stop  at  slashed  garments,  great  sleeves,  and 
headdresses  with  long  wings;  he  preached  on 
eleven  "  public  sins "  that  had  provoked  divine 
wrath.  We  have  no  catalogue  left  us.  The  list 
may  have  included  some  of  those  amusing  scruples 
that  he  held  in  common  with  other  Puritans,  or 
some  of  those  equally  trivial  personal  scruples  that 
Williams  cherished  so  fondly.  But  no  sermon  of 
his  on  public  sins  could  fail  to  contain  a  declara 
tion  of  his  far-reaching  and  cherished  principle  of 
religious  freedom,  including  perhaps  a  round  de 
nunciation  of  the  petty  inquisition  into  private 
opinion  which  had  been  set  up  in  Massachusetts. 
The  Sabbath  law,  the  law  obliging  men  to  pay  a 
tax  to  support  religious  worship,  the  requirement 
that  all  should  attend  religious  worship  under 
penalty,  and  the  enforcement  of  a  religious  oath 
on  irreligious  and  perhaps  unwilling  residents,  the 
assumption  of  the  magistrate  to  regulate  the  ortho 
doxy  of  a  church  under  the  advice  of  the  ministers, 
were  points  of  Massachusetts  law  and  administra 
tion  that  he  denounced  at  various  times  ;  and  some 
of  them,  if  not  all,  were  no  doubt  put  in  pillory  in 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


287 


this  fast-day  sermon  in  the  early  autumn  of  1634. 
Judged  by  modern  standards,  the  sermon  may 
have  had  absurdities  enough,  but  it  was  no  doubt 
a  long  way  in  advance  of  the  General  Court's 
mewling  about  lace,  and  slashes,  and  long  hair,  and 
other  customs  "  prejudicial  to  the  general  good." 
To  this  sermon,  whatever  it  was,  Williams  after 
ward  attributed  the  beginning  of  the  troubles  that 
led  to  his  banishment. 

XI. 

Winthrop,  just  but  gentle,  narrow-minded  but 
ever  large-hearted,  had  been  superseded  in  the 
governorship  by  Dudley,  open  and  zealous  advo 
cate  of  religious  intolerance.  Dudley,  who  was 
always  hot-tempered,  was  for  proceeding  out  of 
hand  with  the  bold  "  teacher "  of  the  church  in 
Salem,  but  he  felt  bound  to  consult  with  the  minis 
ters  first,  since  Williams  was  an  "  elder,"  and  even 
among  Puritans  there  was  a  sort  of  benefit  of 
clergy.  Cotton  had  developed  a  complete  system 
of  church-state  organization  hammered  out  of,  or 
at  least  supported  by,  Bible  texts  linked  by  in 
genious  inferences,  and  from  the  time  of  Cotton's 
arrival  there  was  a  strong  effort  to  secure  uni 
formity.  But  Cotton  was  timid  in  action,  and  he 
was  nothing  if  not  orderly  and  ecclesiastical.  Wil 
liams  was  an  elder,  entitled  as  such  to  be  pro 
ceeded  with  "  in  a  church  way  "  first.  As  leader 
and  spokesman  of  the  clergy  Cotton  expressed  his 
charitable  conviction  that  Williams's  "violent 


CHAP.  II. 


Williams 
dealt  with 
ecclesias 
tically. 


288 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


course  did  rather  spring  from  scruple  of  con 
science  than  from  a  seditious  principle."  The 
clergy  proposed  to  try  to  convert  him  by  argu 
ment,  not  so  much,  perhaps,  from  hope  of  success 
as  from  a  conviction  that  this  was  the  orderly  and 
scriptural  rule.  Dudley,  impatient  to  snuff  out 
Williams  at  once,  replied  that  they  "  were  de 
ceived  in  him  if  they  thought  he  would  conde 
scend  to  learn  of  any  of  them."  But  the  "  elders  " 
now  proceeded  in  the  roundabout  way  prescribed 
by  Cotton's  system  ingeniously  deduced  from 
Scripture.  The  individual  church  must  deal  with 
its  own  member ;  the  sister  churches  might  re 
monstrate  with  a  church.  Cotton  and  Wilson,  for 
example,  could  appeal  to  the  Boston  church  to  ap 
peal  to  the  Salem  church  to  appeal  to  Williams, 
and  in  this  order  much  of  the  correspondence 
went  on. 

It  was,  perhaps,  when  his  desire  to  act  promptly 
against  the  Salem  heretic  was  thus  foiled  by  Cot 
ton's  prudent  and  intricate  orderliness  in  procedure 
that  Dudley  relieved  his  emotions  by  what  is  hap 
pily  the  only  example  of  his  verse  that  has  sur 
vived  : 

Let  men  of  God  in  courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice 
To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left  and  otherwise  combine, 
My  epitaph's  I  die  no  libertine. 


The  PropJ ict  of  Religious  Freedom. 


289 


XII. 

The  most  substantial  grievance  of  the  rulers 
against  Williams  was  his  opposition  to  "  the  oath." 
In  order  to  make  sure  of  the  loyalty  of  the  resi 
dents  in  this  time  of  danger  a  new  oath  of  fidelity 
to  be  taken  by  residents  had  been  promulgated. 
Practical  men  are  wont  to  put  aside  minor  scruples 
in  time  of  danger.  David  eats  the  sacred  shew- 
bread  when  he  is  famishing ;  but  Williams  would 
rather  starve  than  mumble  a  crumb  of  it.  He  did 
not  believe  in  enforced  oaths ;  they  obliged  the 
wicked  man  to  a  religious  act,  and  thus  invaded 
the  soul's  freedom.  Cotton  says  that  Williams's 
scruples  excited  such  an  opposition  to  the  oath 
that  the  magistrates  were  not  able  to  enforce  it. 
He  thus  unwittingly  throws  a  strong  light  on  the 
weakness  of  the  age,  and  extenuates  the  conduct 
of  Williams  as  well  as  that  of  the  rulers.  The  age 
was  in  love  with  scrupulosity,  and  Williams  on  this 
side  was  the  product  of  his  time.  In  such  an  age 
a  scruple-maker  of  ability  and  originality  like  Wil 
liams  might  be  a  source  of  danger. 

During  the  year  following  Williams  was  several 
times  "  convented "  before  the  Court.  He  was 
charged  with  having  broken  his  promise  not  to 
speak  about  the  patent,  with  opposing  the  resi 
dents'  oath,  with  maintaining  certain  scruples  in 
opposition  to  the  customs  of  the  times,  as  that  a 
man  should  not  return  thanks  after  a  meal,  or  call 
on  an  unregenerate  child  to  give  thanks  for  his 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  ii. 


Scruples 
small  and 
great. 


290 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 


Williams 
inflexible. 


Savage's 
Win- 
throp's 
Journal,  i, 
81. 

Mass.  Rec. 
i,  I35,  *36 


food.  These  were  not  more  trivial  certainly  than 
half  a  hundred  scruples  then  prevalent,  but  they 
chanced  to  be  unfashionable — a  damning  fault  in  a 
scruple.  The  sense  of  proportion  was  feeble  in  re 
ligionists  of  that  day,  and  neither  Williams  nor  his 
opponents  understood  the  comparative  magnitude 
of  his  greater  contentions,  and  the  triviality  of 
those  petty  scruples  about  which,  like  the  whole 
Puritan  world,  he  was  very  busy.  Religious  free 
dom  and  the  obligation  of  grace  after  meat  could 
then  be  put  into  the  same  category.  As  years 
went  by,  although  the  mind  of  Williams  was  never 
disentangled  from  scrupulosity,  he  came  to  see 
clearly  what  was  the  real  battle  of  his  life.  No 
better  fortune  can  befall  a  great  spirit  than  such  a 
clarification  of  vision.  The  extended  works  of 
Williams's  later  life  are  written  mainly  to  over 
throw  the  "  bloody  tenent  of  persecution."  It  was 
this  championship  of  soul  liberty  as  the  weightiest 
matter  of  the  law  that  lifted  him  above  all  others 
who  paid  tithes  of  their  little  garden  herbs. 

Williams  was  certainly  incorrigible.  Richard 
Brown,  the  ruling  elder  of  the  church  at  Water- 
town,  seems  to  have  submitted  to  the  remonstrance 
of  the  magistrates  against  his  too  charitable  judg 
ment  of  the  Roman  churches.  Eliot,  of  Roxbury, 
afterward  the  Indian  apostle,  advanced  peculiar 
opinions  also,  but  he  was  overborne  and  convinced. 
Stoughton,  who  had  denied  that  the  "  assistants  " 
of  a  corporation  were  scriptural  magistrates,  was 
brought  to  book  about  this  time,  and  he  retracted. 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


291 


Salem  itself  was  forced  to  bend  its  stiff  neck  at 
last.  The  town  had  been  refused  its  land  on 
Marble  Neck  because  of  its  ordination  of  Williams, 
and  having,  under  Williams's  leadership,  protested 
in  a  letter  to  the  churches  against  the  injustice  of 
spiritual  coercion  by  financial  robbery,  the  depu 
ties  of  Salem  were  now  summarily  turned  out  of 
the  court.  Endecott,  with  characteristic  violence, 
protested  further  against  the  double  injustice  to 
Salem.  He  was  promptly  put  under  arrest,  and 
this  severity  brought  swift  conviction  to  his  mind, 
so  that  he  humbly  apologized  and  submitted  the 
same  day.  The  only  bond  of  unity  between  the 
rash  Salem  leader  and  Williams  was  a  common 
tendency  to  go  to  extremes.  In  spirit,  the  heroic, 
long-suffering  Williams,  who  rested  in  what  he 
called  the  "  rockie  strength "  of  his  opinions  in 
spite  of  penalties  and  majorities,  was  far  removed 
from  a  leader  who  bent  before  the  first  blast,  and 
who  became  in  later  life  the  harshest  persecutor 
in  the  commonwealth. 

XIII. 

Williams  remained  the  one  resolute,  stubborn, 
incorrigible  offender.  Eliot,  Stoughton,  and  Ende 
cott,  and  even  Williams's  fellow-elder,  Sharpe,  and 
the  whole  church  at  Salem,  might  be  argued  into 
conformity  by  the  sharp  dialectics  of  the  clergy,  or 
bullied  out  of  their  convictions  by  the  sharper  logic 
of  the  magistrates,  but  Roger  Williams  could  not 
be  overborne.  Individualist  in  his  very  nature,  his 


CHAP.  II. 


Mass.  Rec. , 
i,  156,  157. 
Win- 
throp's 
Journal,  i, 
194. 


Wil 
liams's 
trial. 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


self-reliant  spirit  was  able  to  face  isolation  or  ex 
communication.  The  great  Hooker  was  set  to  dis 
pute  with  him.  Hooker's  refined  arguments  were 
drawn  out  by  inferences  linked  to  inferences.  He 
proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  everybody  but  the 
culprit  that  it  was  not  lawful  for  Williams,  with  his 
opinions,  to  set  food  before  his  unregenerate  child, 
since  he  did  not  allow  an  irreligious  child  to  go 
through  the  form  of  giving  thanks.  But  the  wire 
drawn  logic  of  Hooker,  though  Williams  could  not 
always  answer  it,  had  no  more  influence  with  him 
than  the  ingenious  sophistications  of  the  pious 
Cotton ;  Williams  constantly  fell  back  upon  the 
"  rockie  strength "  of  his  principles.  On  the  Qth 
of  October,  1635,  he  was  sentenced  to  banishment. 
After  the  manner  of  that  curious  age,  his  banish 
ment  was  based  on  charges  of  great  importance 
mixed  with  charges  utterly  trivial.  His  denial  of 
the  authority  of  the  magistrate  to  regulate  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  churches  and  the  belief  of  indi 
viduals  is,  however,  made  one  of  the  cardinal 
offenses  in  all  the  trustworthy  accounts  given  at 
the  time.  With  this  were  joined  in  the  proceed 
ings,  but  not  in  the  sentence,  such  things  as  the 
denial  of  the  propriety  of  grace  after  meat.  All 
the  elders  but  one  advised  his  banishment. 

The  magistrates,  though  deeply  "  incensed " 
against  him,  probably  felt  at  the  last  some  reluc 
tance  to  banish  such  a  man.  Six  weeks  were  ac 
corded  him  in  which  to  leave.  Winthrop,  who 
was  Williams's  friend,  and  who  seems  to  have  been 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


293 


loath  to  consent  to  his  banishment,  wrote  to  him  to 
"  steer  his  course  for  Narragansett  Bay,"  where 
there  was  territory  beyond  the  bounds  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  Plymouth.  The  forest  journeys  or 
boat  voyages  to  Boston  and  back,  the  bitter  con 
troversies  there,  and  the  uproar  of  indignation 
which  was  produced  in  Salem  by  the  news  of  the 
verdict,  the  desertion  of  Williams  by  Endecott,  con 
vinced  by  force,  and  by  Sharpe,  the  ruling  elder, 
who  had  been  also  dealt  with,  the  natural  yielding 
of  the  Salem  church  after  a  while  to  the  pressure 
from  the  General  Court,  and  to  the  desire  of  the 
townsmen  to  secure  the  lands  at  Marble  Neck,  put 
a  strain  on  Williams  which,  added  to  his  necessary 
toil  in  the  field,  broke  his  health  and  he  fell  ill. 
The  General  Court  probably  also  felt  the  recoil  of 
its  act.  When  six  weeks  had  expired  consent 
was  given  that  Williams  should  remain  during  the 
winter  provided  he  would  refrain  from  preaching. 
But  Williams  was  in  Salem,  and  in  Salem  he  was 
the  center  of  interest — just  now  he  was  the  center 
of  explosion.  It  was  impossible  for  the  great  Sep 
aratist  to  be  silent.  A  few  faithful  friends,  come- 
outers  like  himself,  clave  to  him  and  repudiated  as 
he  did  communion  with  the  church  at  Salem,  which 
could  condone  the  offenses  of  the  magistrates  for 
the  sake  of  "  these  children's  toys  of  land,  meadows, 
cattle,  and  government."  These  fellow-Separatists, 
some  of  whom  perhaps  had  removed  from  Plym 
outh  out  of  love  for  this  unworldly  saint,  loved  him 
none  the  less  for  his  courage  and  his  sorrows. 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  14. 


Note  15. 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


They  frequented  his  house  on  Sunday  as  he  con 
valesced.  Indeed,  the  attachment  to  him  was  so 
great  that  the  "  ordinances  "  which  had  been  ap 
pointed  by  the  magistrates  and  enforced  on  Salem 
as  the  price  of  the  common  land  on  Marble  Neck, 
were  neglected  and  almost  deserted.  Williams 
could  not  refrain  from  speech  with  this  concourse 
of  visitors,  and  at  length  word  came  to  Boston  that 
more  than  twenty  persons  had  definitely  adhered 
to  the  opinions  of  their  former  teacher,  uncon 
vinced  by  the  argument  of  the  rod  of  justice  ap 
plied  to  Endecott  and  Sharpe,  or  by  the  valuable 
land  on  Marble  Neck.  These  disciples  proposed 
to  remove  in  the  spring  with  Williams  to  the  shores 
of  Narragansett  Bay.  This  might  meet  the  ap 
proval  of  the  sagacious  and  kindly  Winthrop,  who 
had  directed  Williams's  attention  to  that  promising 
place,  and  who  foresaw  perhaps  the  usefulness  of 
such  a  man  in  the  dangerous  Indian  crisis  now 
threatening  the  colony.  But  to  devotees  of  uni 
formity,  the  prospect  of  a  community  on  the  very 
border  of  the  land  of  the  saints  tolerating  all  sorts 
of  opinionists  was  insufferable.  When  once  the 
civil  government  weights  itself  with  spiritual  con 
siderations,  its  whole  equilibrium  is  disturbed. 
Liberty  and  justice  seem  insignificant  by  the  side 
of  the  immensities.  The  magistrates,  or  a  part  of 
them,  were  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  a  settlement 
of  the  followers  of  Williams  at  Narragansett  Bay, 
"  whence  the  infection  would  easily  spread  into 
these  churches,  the  people  being,  many  of  them, 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


much  taken  with  an  apprehension  of  his  godliness." 
It  was  therefore  agreed  to  send  him  to  England 
on  a  ship  soon  to  sail. 


XIV. 

The  hardships  of  such  a  voyage  in  midwinter 
in  his  state  of  health  might  prove  fatal,  and  his 
arrival  in  England  would  almost  certainly  deliver 
him  into  the  hands  of  Laud.  But  what  is  justice 
or  mercy  when  the  welfare  of  churches  and  the 
rescue  of  imperiled  souls  is  to  be  considered  ?  A 
warrant  was  dispatched  ordering  him  to  Boston 
within  a  certain  time.  Probably  knowing  what 
was  in  store  for  him,  he  protested  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  for  him,  in  view  of  his  health,  to  make 
the  journey,  and  some  of  the  Salem  people  went  to 
Boston  in  his  behalf,  and,  as  was  natural  in  the  cir 
cumstances,  made  exaggerated  representations  re 
garding  his  physical  condition.  But  the  magistrates 
had  other  information.  They  sent  the  valiant  and 
notorious  Captain  Underbill,  in  whom  were  min 
gled  about  equally  devoutness,  military  courage, 
and  incorrigible  lewdness,  to  bring  Williams  by 
sea  in  a  shallop.  Williams  was  probably  informed 
of  their  purpose,  for,  while  Underbill  in  his  little 
craft  was  beating  up  to  Salem  in  wintry  seas  on  an 
errand  so  congenial,  expecting  perhaps  to  come 
upon  his  quarry  unawares,  Williams  was  fleeing 
from  one  hamlet  of  bark  wigwams  to  another. 
Here  among  the  barbarians  he  was  sure  of  faithful 
friends  and  secure  concealment.  Underbill  found 


CHAP.  II. 


Escape  to 
the  In 
dians. 


296 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


on  his  arrival  that  the  culprit  had  disappeared 
three  days  before  he  got  there,  and  nobody  in 
Salem,  that  could,  would  tell  whither  the  fugitive 
had  gone. 

Meantime  Williams  was,  to  use  his  own  figure 
of  speech,  "  steering  his  course  "  "  in  winter  snow  " 
toward  Narragansett  Bay.  "  I  was  sorely  tossed 
for  one  fourteen  weeks  in  a  bitter  winter  season," 
he  says,  in  his  vivid  and  hyperbolic  fashion  of 
speech,  "  not  knowing  what  bed  or  bread  did 
mean."  He  began  one  settlement  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Seekonk  River  after  getting  land  from 
the  Indians,  but  his  old  enemies  the  royal  patents 
now  had  their  revenge.  Winslow,  governor  of 
Plymouth,  a  kind-hearted,  politic  man,  the  one  born 
diplomatist  of  New  England,  warned  him  that  he 
was  within  the  bounds  of  Plymouth,  and  asked 
him  to  remove  to  the  other  side  of  the  water,  be 
cause  they  "  were  loath  to  displease  the  Bay."  It 
was  not  enough  to  drive  a  heretic  from  the  bounds 
of  Massachusetts ;  the  pragmatic  Puritanism  of  the 
time  would  have  expelled  him  from  the  continent 
had  its  arm  been  long  enough.  Williams  had  al 
ready  begun  to  build  and  to  plant,  but  he  removed 
once  more  to  the  place  which  he  named  Provi 
dence.  He  planted  the  germinal  settlement  of 
the  first  state  in  the  world  that  founded  religious 
liberty  on  the  widest  possible  basis,  reserving  to 
the  law  no  cognizance  whatever  of  religious  beliefs 
or  conduct  where  the  "  civil  peace  "  was  not  en 
dangered. 


fetvt 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


297 


XV. 

Local  jealousy  and  sectarian  prejudice  have 
done  what  they  could  to  obscure  the  facts  of  the 
trial  and  banishment  of  Williams.  It  has  been  ar 
gued  by  more  than  one  writer  that  it  was  not  a 
case  of  religious  persecution  at  all,  but  the  exclu 
sion  of  a  man  dangerous  to  the  state.  Cotton, 
with  characteristic  verbal  legerdemain,  says  that 
Williams  was  "  enlarged "  rather  than  banished. 
The  case  has  even  been  pettifogged  in  our  own 
time  by  the  assertion  that  the  banishment  was 
only  the  action  of  a  commercial  company  exclud 
ing  an  uncongenial  person  from  its  territory.  But 
with  what  swift  indignation  would  the  Massachu 
setts  rulers  of  the  days  of  Dudley  and  Haynes 
have  repudiated  a  plea  which  denied  their  magis 
tracy  !  They  put  so  strong  a  pressure  on  Stough- 
ton,  who  said  that  the  assistants  were  not  magis 
trates,  that  he  made  haste  to  renounce  his  pride 
of  authorship  and  to  deliver  his  booklet  to  be  offi 
cially  burned,  nor  did  even  this  prevent  his  punish 
ment.  The  rulers  of  "  the  Bay  "  were  generally 
frank  advocates  of  religious  intolerance  ;  they  re 
garded  toleration  as  a  door  set  open  for  the  devil 
to  enter.  Not  only  did  they  punish  for  unortho 
dox  expressions  ;  they  even  assumed  to  inquire  into 
private  beliefs.  Williams  was  only  one  of  scores 
bidden  to  depart  on  account  of  opinion. 

The  real  and  sufficient  extenuation  for  the  con 
duct  of  the  Massachusetts  leaders  is  found  in  the 


CHAP.  II. 


Wil- 

liams's 
banish 
ment  an 
act  of  per 
secution. 


Note  17. 


Intoler 
ance  as  a 
virtue. 


298 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


character  and  standards  of  the  age.  A  few  ob 
scure  and  contemned  sectaries — Brownists,  Ana 
baptists,  and  despised  Familists — in  Holland  and 
England  had  spoken  more  or  less  clearly  in  favor 
of  religious  liberty  before  the  rise  of  Roger  Wil 
liams,  but  nobody  of  weight  or  respectable  stand 
ing  in  the  whole  world  had  befriended  it.  All  the 
great  authorities  in  church  and  state,  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  prelatical  and  Puritan,  agreed  in 
their  detestation  of  it.  Even  Robinson,  the  mod 
erate  pastor  of  the  Leyden  Pilgrims,  ventured  to 
hold  only  to  the  "  toleration  of  tolerable  opinions." 
This  was  the  toleration  found  at  Amsterdam  and 
in  some  other  parts  of  the  Low  Countries.  Even 
this  religious  sufferance  which  did  not  amount  to 
liberty  was  sufficiently  despicable  in  the  eyes  of 
that  intolerant  age  to  bring  upon  the  Dutch  the 
contempt  of  Christendom.  It  was  a  very  qualified 
and  limited  toleration,  and  one  from  which  Catho 
lics  and  Arminians  were  excluded.  It  seems  to 
have  been  that  practical  amelioration  of  law  which 
is  produced  more  effectually  by  commerce  than  by 
learning  or  religion.  Outside  of  some  parts  of  the 
Low  Countries,  and  oddly  enough  of  the  Turkish 
Empire,  all  the  world  worth  counting  decried  tol 
eration  as  a  great  crime.  It  would  have  been  won 
derful  indeed  if  Massachusetts  had  been  superior 
to  the  age.  "  I  dare  aver,"  says  Nathaniel  Ward, 
the  New  England  lawyer-minister,  "  that  God  doth 
no  where  in  his  word  tolerate  Christian  States  to 
give  tolerations  to  such  adversaries  of  his  Truth,  if 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


299 


they  have  power  in  their  hands  to  suppress  them." 
To  set  up  toleration  was  "  to  build  a  sconce  against 
the  walls  of  heaven  to  batter  God  out  of  his  chair/' 
in  Ward's  opinion. 

XVI. 

This  doctrine  of  intolerance  was  sanctioned  by 
many  refinements  of  logic,  such  as  Cotton's  deli 
cious  sophistry  that  if  a  man  refused  to  be  con 
vinced  of  the  truth,  he  was  sinning  against  con 
science,  and  therefore  it  was  not  against  the  liberty 
of  conscience  to  coerce  him.  Cotton's  moral  intui 
tions  were  fairly  suffocated  by  logic.  He  declared 
that  men  should  be  compelled  to  attend  religious 
service,  because  it  was  "  better  to  be  hypocrites 
than  profane  persons.  Hypocrites  give  God  part 
of  his  due,  the  outward  man,  but  the  profane 
person  giveth  God  neither  outward  nor  inward 
man."  To  reason  thus  is  to  put  subtlety  into  the 
cathedra  of  common  sense,  to  bewilder  vision  by 
legerdemain.  Notwithstanding  his  natural  gift  for 
devoutness  and  his  almost  immodest  godliness, 
Cotton  was  incapable  of  high  sincerity.  He  would 
not  specifically  advise  Williams's  banishment,  but 
having  labored  with  him  round  a  corner  according 
to  his  most  approved  ecclesiastical  formula,  he 
said,  "  We  have  no  more  to  say  in  his  behalf,  but 
must  sit  down  "  ;  by  which  expression  of  passivity 
he  gave  the  signal  to  the  "  secular  arm  "  to  do  its 
worst,  while  he  washed  his  hands  in  innocent  self- 
complacency.  When  one  scrupulous  magistrate 


CHAP.  II. 

Simple 
Cobbler  of 
Agawam, 
pp.  3  and  6. 


The  casu 
istry  of 
Cotton. 


Note  20. 


Hutchin- 
son  Papers, 
406. 


3°° 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


consulted  him  as  to  his  obligation  in  Williams's 
case,  Cotton  answered  his  hesitation  by  saying, 
"  You  know  they  are  so  much  incensed  against  his 
course  that  it  is  not  your  voice  nor  the  voice  of 
two  or  three  more  that  can  suspend  the  sentence." 
By  such  shifty  phrases  he  shirked  responsibility 
for  the  results  of  his  own  teaching.  Of  the  temper 
that  stands  alone  for  the  right,  Nature  had  given 
him  not  a  jot.  Williams  may  be  a  little  too  severe, 
but  he  has  some  truth  when  he  describes  Cotton 
on  this  occasion  as  "  swimming  with  the  stream  of 
outward  credit  and  profit,"  though  nothing  was 
further  from  Cotton's  conscious  purpose  than  such 
worldliness.  Cotton's  intolerance  was  not  like  that 
of  Dudley  and  Endecott,  the  offspring  of  an  aus 
tere  temper;  it  was  rather  the  outgrowth  of  his 
logic  and  his  reverence  for  authority.  He  shel 
tered  himself  behind  the  examples  of  Elizabeth  and 
James  I,  and  took  refuge  in  the  shadow  of  Calvin, 
whose  burning  of  Servetus  he  cites  as  an  example, 
without  any  recoil  of  heart  or  conscience.  But  the 
consideration  of  the  character  of  the  age  forbids 
us  to  condemn  the  conscientious  men  who  put  Wil 
liams  out  of  the  Massachusetts  theocracy  as  they 
would  have  driven  the  devil  out  of  the  garden  of 
Eden.  When,  however,  it  comes  to  judging  the 
age  itself,  and  especially  to  judging  the  Puritanism 
of  the  age,  these  false  and  harsh  ideals  are  its  suffi 
cient  condemnation.  Its  government  and  its  very 
religion  were  barbarous ;  its  Bible,  except  for  mys 
tical  and  ecclesiastical  uses,  might  as  well  have 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


301 


closed  with  the  story  of  the  Hebrew  judges  and 
the  imprecatory  Psalms.  The  Apocalypse  of  John, 
grotesquely  interpreted,  was  the  one  book  of  the 
New  Testament  that  received  hearty  considera 
tion,  aside  from  those  other  New  Testament  pas 
sages  supposed  to  relate  to  a  divinely  appointed 
ecclesiasticism.  The  humane  pity  of  Jesus  was  un 
known  not  only  to  the  laws,  but  to  the  sermons  of 
the  time.  About  the  time  of  Williams's  banish 
ment  the  lenity  of  John  Winthrop  was  solemnly 
rebuked  by  some  of  the  clergy  and  rulers  as  a  lax 
imperiling  of  the  safety  of  the  gospel ;  and  Win 
throp,  overborne  by  authority,  confessed,  ex 
plained,  apologized,  and  promised  amendment. 
The  Puritans  substituted  an  unformulated  belief 
in  the  infallibility  of  "  godly  "  elders  acting  with 
the  magistrates  for  the  ancient  doctrine  of  an  in 
fallible  church. 

XVII. 

In  this  less  scrupulous  but  more  serious  age  it 
is  easy  to  hold  Williams  up  to  ridicule.  Never 
was  a  noble  and  sweet-spirited  man  bedeviled  by  a 
scrupulosity  more  trivial.  Cotton  aptly  dubbed 
him  "a  haberdasher  of  small  questions."  His  ex 
tant  letters  are  many  of  them  vibrant  with  latent 
heroism ;  there  is  manifest  in  them  an  exquisite 
charity  and  a  pathetic  magnanimity,  but  in  the 
midst  of  it  all  the  writer  is  unable  to  rid  himself  of 
a  swarm  of  scruples  as  pertinacious  as  the  buzzing 
mosquitoes  in  the  primitive  forest  about  him.  In 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  22. 


Savage's 
Winthrop, 
i,  211-214. 


Character 
of  Wil 
liams.  His 
scruples. 

New  Eng 
land  Fire 
brand 
Quenched, 
246. 


302 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony -Plant  ing. 


dating  his  letters,  where  he  ventures  to  date  at  all, 
he  never  writes  the  ordinary  name  of  the  day  of 
the  week  or  the  name  of  the  month,  lest  he  should 
be  guilty  of  etymological  heathenism.  He  often 
avoids  writing  the  year,  and  when  he  does  insert 
it  he  commits  himself  to  the  last  two  figures  only 
and  adds  a  saving  clause.  Thus  1652  appears  as 
"  52  (so  called),"  and  other  years  are  tagged  with 
the  same  doubting  words,  or  with  the  Latin  "  ut 
vulgo"  What  quarrel  the  tender  conscience  had 
with  the  Christian  era  it  is  hard  to  guess.  So,  too, 
he  writes  to  Winthrop,  who  had  taken  part  in  his 
banishment,  letters  full  of  reverential  tenderness 
and  hearty  friendship.  But  his  conscience  does 
not  allow  him  even  to  seem  to  hold  ecclesiastical 
fellowship  with  the  man  he  honors  as  a  ruler  and 
loves  as  a  friend.  Once  at  least  he  guards  the  point 
directly  by  subscribing  himself  "  Your  worship's 
faithful  and  affectionate  in  all  civil  bonds."  It 
would  be  sad  to  think  of  a  great  spirit  so  enthralled 
by  the  scrupulosity  of  his  time  and  his  party  if 
these  minute  restrictions  had  been  a  source  of  an 
noyance  to  him.  But  the  cheerful  observance  of 
little  scruples  seems  rather  to  have  taken  the  place 
of  a  recreation  in  his  life ;  they  were  to  him  per 
haps  what  bric-a-brac  is  to  a  collector,  what  a  well- 
arranged  altar  and  candlesticks  are  to  a  ritualist. 

Two  fundamental  notions  supplied  the  motive 
power  of  every  ecclesiastical  agitation  of  that  age. 
The  notion  of  a  succession  of  churchly  order  and 
ordinance  from  the  time  of  the  apostles  was  the 


The  Prop] let  of  Religions  Freedom. 


303 


mainspring  of  the  High-church  movement.  Apos 
tolic  primitivism  was  the  aim  of  the  Puritan  and 
still  more  the  goal  of  the  Separatist.  One  party 
rejoiced  in  a  belief  that  a  mysterious  apostolic  vir 
tue  had  trickled  down  through  generations  of  bish 
ops  and  priests  to  its  own  age ;  the  other  rejoiced 
in  the  destruction  of  institutions  that  had  grown 
up  in  the  ages  and  in  getting  back  to  the  primi 
tive  nakedness  of  the  early  Christian  conventicle. 
True  to  the  law  of  his  nature,  Roger  Williams 
pushed  this  latter  principle  to  its  ultimate  possi 
bilities.  If  we  may  believe  the  accounts,  he  and 
his  followers  at  Providence  became  Baptists  that 
they  might  receive  the  rite  of  baptism  in  its  most 
ancient  Oriental  form.  But  in  an  age  when  the 
fountains  of  the  great  deep  were  utterly  broken  up 
he  could  find  no  rest  for  the  soles  of  his  feet.  It 
was  not  enough  that  he  should  be  troubled  4>y 
the  Puritan  spirit  of  apostolic  primitivism ;  he  had 
now  swung  round  to  where  this  spirit  joined  hands 
with  its  twin,  the  aspiration  for  apostolic  succes 
sion.  He  renounced  his  baptism  because  it  was 
without  apostolic  sanction,  and  announced  himself 
of  that  sect  which  was  the  last  reduction  of  Sepa 
ratism.  He  became  a  Seeker. 

Here  again  is  a  probable  influence  from  Hol 
land.  The  Seekers  had  appeared  there  long  be 
fore.  Many  Baptists  had  found  that  their  search 
for  primitivism,  if  persisted  in,  carried  them  to  this 
negative  result ;  for  it  seemed  not  enough  to  have 
apostolic  rites  in  apostolic  form  unless  they  were 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  24. 


The 
Seekers. 


304 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 


Moral  ele 
vation  of 
Williams. 


sanctioned  by  the  "  gifts  "  of  the  apostolic  time. 
The  Seekers  appeared  in  England  as  early  as  1617, 
and  during  the  religious  turmoils  of  the  Common 
wealth  period  the  sect  afforded  a  resting  place  for 
many  a  weatherbeaten  soul.  As  the  miraculous 
gifts  were  lost,  the  Seekers  dared  not  preach,  bap 
tize,  or  teach ;  they  merely  waited,  and  in  their 
mysticism  they  believed  their  waiting  to  be  an 
"  upper  room  "  to  which  Christ  would  come.  It  is 
interesting  to  know  that  Williams,  the  most  roman 
tic  figure  of  the  whole  Puritan  movement,  at  last 
found  a  sort  of  relief  from  the  austere  externalism 
and  ceaseless  dogmatism  of  his  age  by  traveling 
the  road  of  literalism  until  he  had  passed  out  on 
the  other  side  into  the  region  of  devout  and  con 
tented  uncertainty. 

XVIII. 

In  all  this  Williams  was  the  child  of  his  age, 
and  sometimes  more  childish  than  his  age.  But 
there  were  regions  of  thought  and  sentiment  in 
which  he  was  wholly  disentangled  from  the  meshes 
of  his  time,  and  that  not  because  of  intellectual  su 
periority — for  he  had  no  large  philosophical  views— 
but  by  reason  of  elevation  of  spirit.  Even  the  au 
thority  of  Moses  could  not  prevent  him  from  con 
demning  the  harsh  severity  of  the  New  England 
capital  laws.  He  had  no  sentimental  delusions 
about  the  character  of  the  savages — he  styles  them 
"  wolves  endued  with  men's  brains  "  ;  but  he  con 
stantly  pleads  for  a  humane  treatment  of  them. 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


305 


All  the  bloody  precedents  of  Joshua  could  not 
make  him  look  without  repulsion  on  the  slaughter 
of  women  and  children  in  the  Pequot  war,  nor 
could  he  tolerate  dismemberment  of  the  dead  or 
the  selling-  of  Indian  captives  into  perpetual  slavery. 
From  bigotry  and  resentment  he  was  singularly 
free.  On  many  occasions  he  joyfully  used  his 
ascendency  over  the  natives  to  protect  those  who 
kept  in  force  against  him  a  sentence  of  perpet 
ual  banishment.  And  this  ultra-Separatist,  almost 
alone  of  the  men  of  his  time,  could  use  such  words 
of  catholic  charity  as  those  in  which  he  speaks  of 
"  the  people  of  God  wheresoever  scattered  about 
Babel's  banks  either  in  Rome  or  England." 

Of  his  incapacity  for  organization  or  adminis 
tration  we  shall  have  to  speak  hereafter.  But  his 
spiritual  intuitions,  his  moral  insight,  his  genius 
for  justice,  lent  a  curious  modernness  to  many  Of 
his  convictions.  In  a  generation  of  creed-builders 
Avhich  detested  schism  he  became  an  individualist. 
Individualist  in  thought,  altruist  in  spirit,  secular 
ist  in  governmental  theory,  he  was  the  herald  of  a 
time  yet  more  modern  than  this  laggard  age  of 
ours.  If  ever  a  soul  saw  a  clear-shining  inward 
light  not  to  be  dimmed  by  prejudices  or  obscured 
by  the  deft  logic  of  a  disputatious  age,  it  was  the 
soul  of  Williams.  In  all  the  region  of  petty  scrupu- 
ulosity  the  time-spirit  had  enthralled  him  ;  but  in 
the  higher  region  of  moral  decision  he  was  utterly 
emancipated  from  it.  His  conclusions  belong  to 
ages  yet  to  come. 


CHAP.  II. 


Superior 
to  the  age. 


306 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 

His  pro 
phetic 
character. 


This  union  of  moral  aspiration  with  a  certain 
disengagedness  constitutes  what  we  may  call  the 
prophetic  temperament.  Bradford  and  Winthrop 
were  men  of  high  aspiration,  but  of  another  class. 
The  reach  of  their  spirits  was  restrained  by  prac 
tical  wisdom,  which  compelled  them  to  take  into 
account  the  limits  of  the  attainable.  Not  that  they 
consciously  refused  to  follow  their  logic  to  its  end, 
but  that,  like  other  prudent  men  of  affairs,  they 
were,  without  their  own  knowledge  or  consent, 
turned  aside  by  the  logic  of  the  impossible.  Pre 
cisely  here  the  prophet  departs  from  the  reformer. 
The  prophet  recks  nothing  of  impossibility  ;  he  is 
ravished  with  truth  disembodied.  From  Elijah  the 
Tishbite  to  Socrates,  from  Socrates  to  the  latest 
and  perhaps  yet  unrecognized  voice  of  our  own 
time,  the  prophetic  temperament  has  ever  shown 
all  inability  to  enter  into  treaty  with  its  environ 
ment.  In  the  seventeenth  century  there  was  no 
place  but  the  wilderness  for  such  a  John  Baptist  of 
the  distant  future  as  Roger  Williams.  He  did  not 
belong  among  the  diplomatic  builders  of  churches, 
like  Cotton,  or  the  politic  founders  of  states,  like 
Winthrop.  He  was  but  a  babbler  to  his  own  time, 
but  the  prophetic  voice  rings  clear  and  far,  and 
ever  clearer  as  the  ages  go  on. 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


307 


ELUCIDATIONS. 

Sir  William  Martin,  an  early  friend  of  Williams,  describes 
him  as  passionate  and  precipitate,  but  with  integrity  and  good 
intentions.  Hutchinson  Papers,  106.  See  also,  for  example,  the 
two  letters  of  Williams  to  Lady  Barrington,  in  New  England 
Genealogical  Register,  July,  1889,  pp.  316  and  following. 

Letter  to  John  Cotton  the  younger,  25th  March,  1671.  "He 
knows  what  gains  and  preferments  I  have  refused  in  universities, 
city,  country  and  court,"  etc.  Williams's  enthusiastic  nature 
gave  a  flush  of  color  to  his  statement  of  ordinary  fact,  the  general 
correctness  of  which,  however,  there  is  never  reason  to  doubt. 

Letter  to  John  Cotton  the  younger,  Narragansett  Club  Publi 
cations,  vi,  356.  There  is  no  account  of  this  event  elsewhere,  but 
the  church  records  of  that  early  date  are  imperfect,  and  there  is 
every  reason  to  accept  the  circumstantial  statement  of  Williams. 
That  he  refused  to  enter  into  membership  with  the  church  is 
confirmed  by  Winthrop's  Journal,  I2th  April,  1631,  and  such  re 
fusal  must  have  had  some  such  occasion. 

"We  have  often  tried  your  patience,  but  could  never  conquer 
it,"  were  Winthrop's  words  to  WTilliams,  who  gave  to  Massa 
chusetts  lifelong  service  in  return  for  its  lifelong  severity  toward 
him.  The  sentence  is  quoted  in  Williams's  letter  to  the 
younger  Cotton,  cited  above,  which  is  itself  a  fine  example  of 
his  magnanimity  of  spirit.  Narragansett  Club  Publications,  vi, 
351-357. 

There  is  difference  of  opinion  on  this  point,  but  certain  words 
of  Williams  himself  seem  to  bear  on  it.  After  his  retirement 
from  Salem  to  Plymouth  he  received  a  letter  from  Winthrop, 
which  appears  to  have  intimated  that  no  man  under  twenty-five 
ought  to  be  ordained.  Williams  explains  in  reply  that  he  is 
"  nearer  upwards  of  thirty  than  twenty-five,"  but  avers,  "  I  am 
no  elder  in  any  church  .  .  .  nor  ever  shall  be,  if  the  Lord  please 
to  grant  my  desires  that  I  may  intend  what  I  long  after,  the 
natives  souls."  Williams's  Letter,  Narragansett  Club  Publica 
tions,  vi,  2.  Of  course,  these  words  might  have  been  written  if 
he  had  resigned  the  eldership  before  leaving  Salem,  but  they 
would  have  had  much  less  pertinency. 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  i, 
page  268. 


Note  2, 
page  269. 


Note  3, 
page  270. 


Note  4, 
page  271. 


Note  5, 
page  272. 


308 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 

Note  6, 
page  276. 


Note  7, 
page  278. 


Note  8, 
page  279. 


Note  9, 
page  281. 


Note  10, 
page  288. 


Note  ii, 
page  289. 


Mr.  Straus,  in  his  Life  of  Roger  Williams,  says  aptly  that 
Massachusetts  was  under  a  government  of  congregations  rather 
than  of  towns,  since  only  church  members  could  vote.  A  fuller 
discussion  of  the  source  and  evolution  of  the  town  system  is  de 
ferred  to  a  later  volume  of  this  series. 

David  Pieterzen  de  Vries,  in  his  Voyages,  reports  this  feeling 
of  superiority  as  freely  expressed  at  Hartford  in  1639.  There  is  a 
quaint  humor  in  what  he  says  of  it  that  is  enhanced  by  the 
naive  Dutch  phrase  in  which  it  is  set  down  :  "  Dit  Volck  gaven 
haer  uyt  det  sy  Israeliten  waren,  ende  dat  wy  aen  onse  colonie 
Egyptenaren  waren,  end'  Engelsen  inde  Vergienies  waren  mede 
Egyptenaren,"  p.  151. 

"And  such  was  the  authority  .  .  .  Mr.  Cotton  had  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  that  whatever  he  delivered  in  the  pulpit  was 
soon  put  into  an  Order  of  Court,  if  of  a  civil,  or  set  up  as  a  prac 
tice  in  the  church,  if  of  an  ecclesiastical  concernment."  Hubbard, 
History  of  Massachusetts,  182. 

Knowles's  Life  of  Williams,  58,  note,  quotes  from  a  letter  of 
Coddington's  appended  to  Fox's  reply  to  Williams,  in  which 
Coddington,  who  was  one  of  the  magistrates  that  examined  the 
treatise,  charges  Williams  with  having  "  written  a  quarto  against 
the  King's  patent  and  authority." 

Cotton's  Answer  to  Williams's  Examination,  38.  I  have  fol 
lowed  Cotton  implicitly  here,  but  without  feeling  sure  that  his 
memory  can  ever  be  depended  on  where  his  polemical  feeling  is 
concerned.  On  the  next  page  he  is  guilty  of  a  flagrant  but  no 
doubt  unconscious  suppression  of  an  important  fact.  "  It  pleased 
the  Lord  to  open  the  hearts  of  the  Church  to  assist  us,"  etc.,  he 
says,  putting  out  of  sight  the  sharp  dealing  by  which  the  Salem 
church  was  brought  to  ignominious  subjection. 

Cotton's  Answer  to  Williams,  29.  Compare  also  Massachu 
setts  Records  of  4th  March,  1633,  where  a  mercenary  inducement 
to  take  the  oath  is  offered  by  making  the  regulations  for  record 
ing  the  lands  of  freemen  apply  also  to  the  lands  of  "residents" 
presumably  not  church  members  and  ineligible  to  the  franchise, 
but  only  to  the  residents  "  that  had  taken  or  shall  hereafter  take 
their  oathes."  Backus  supposes  that  Williams  saw  some  inci 
dental  result  from  the  oath  that  would  be  prejudicial  to  religious 
freedom.  This  is  to  suppose  that  WTilliams  needed  a  practical 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


309 


consideration  to  stir  him  to  action — it  is  to  suppose  that  Wil 
liams  was  not  Williams.  Practical  men  were  afraid  the  inde 
pendence  of  Massachusetts  would  be  lost ;  Roger  Williams  was 
only  afraid  that  Massachusetts  would  commit  a  public  sin  in 
trying  to  escape  the  impending  evil.  A  conscience  undefiled 
was  his  objective  point  in  private  and  public  life ;  safety,  public 
or  private,  was  secondary. 

There  has  been  much  ingenious  and  rather  uncanclid  effort  by 
Cotton  first  of  all,  and  by  other  defenders  of  the  General  Court 
since,  to  prove  that  Williams's  views  on  toleration  were  not  a 
cause  of  his  banishment.  If  those  views  had  been  the  sole  cause, 
the  decree  would  have  been  more  comprehensible  and  defensible 
in  view  of  the  opinions  of  the  age.  But  the  question  about  the 
validity  of  the  patent,  the  question  of  the  protest  written  against 
the  course  of  the  magistrates  in  blackmailing  Salem  into  a  refusal  to 
support  him,  the  question  of  the  freeman's  oath,  and,  what  seems 
to  have  been  deemed  of  capital  importance,  the  question  of  grace 
after  meat,  are  all  involved  at  one  time  or  another.  The  formal 
charges  in  what  may  be  considered  the  beginning  of  the  banish 
ment  proceedings,  the  trial  in  July,  as  given  by  Winthrop,  our 
most  trustworthy  authority,  are :  I .  That  the  magistrates  ought 
not  to  punish  for  a  religious  offense — "the  breach  of  the  first 
table  "• — except  where  it  disturbed  the  civil  peace.  2.  That  the 
magistrate  ought  not  to  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate  man. 

3.  That  a  man  ought  not  to  pray  with  an  unregenerate  person. 

4.  That  thanks  were  not  to  be  given  after  the  sacrament  and  after 
meat.     Savage's  Winthrop,  i,  193,  194.     In  the  final  proceedings 
in  October,  the  letters  growing  out  of  the  refusal  to  confirm  to 
Salem  its  outlying  land  entered  into  and  embittered  the  con 
troversy.     Winthrop,  i,   204.     The  recorded  verdict   makes  the 
divulging  "  of  dyvers  newe  and  dangerous  opinions  against  the 
aucthoritie  of  the  magistrate  "  the  first  offense,  and  the  "letter  of 
defamacion  "  the  second.     Williams  says  that  a  magistrate,  who 
appears    to  have  been  Haynes,  the  governor,  summed  up  his 
offenses  at  the  conclusion  of  the  trial  under  four  heads:  i.  The 
denial  of  the  authority  of  the  patent.     2.  The  denial  of  the  law 
fulness  of  requiring  a  wicked  person  to  take  an  oath  or  pray.     3. 
The  denial  of  the  lawfulness  of  hearing  the  parish  ministers  in 
England.     4.  The  doctrine  "  that  the  Civill  Magistrates'  power 
extends  only  to  the  Bodies  and   Goods  and  outward  State  of 
men."     Against  the  evidence  of  Williams,  Winthrop,  and  the 


CHAP.  II. 


Note  12, 
page  292. 


3io 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


records,  I  can  not  attach  any  importance  to  the  halting  accounts 
given  years  afterward,  for  controversial  purposes,  by  Cotton,  from 
what  he  thought  was  his  memory. 

"Whereas  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  one  of  the  elders  of  the 
church  at  Salem,  hath  broached  and  dyvulged  dyvers  newe  and 
dangerous  opinions,  against  the  aucthoritie  of  magistrates,  as  also 
writt  letters  of  defamacion  both  of  the  magistrates  &  Churches 
here,  &  that  before  any  conviccion,  &  yet  maintaineth  the  same 
without  retraccion,  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  the  said  Mr.  Wil 
liams  shall  departe  out  of  this  jurisdiccion  within  sixe  weekes  now 
nexte  ensueing,  which  if  hee  neglect  to  performe  it  shall  be  law- 
full  for  the  Gouernour  &  two  of  the  magistrates  to  send  him  to 
some  place  out  of  this  jurisdiccion,  not  to  returne  any  more  with 
out  license  from  the  Court."  Massachusetts  Records,  i,  161. 

Neal's  History  of  New  England,  i,  143.  "  Sentence  of  ban 
ishment  being  read  against  Mr.  Williams,  the  whole  town  of 
Salem  was  in  an  uproar ;  for  such  was  the  Popularity  of  the  Man 
and  such  the  Compassion  of  the  People  .  ,  .  that  he  would  have 
carried  off  the  greatest  part  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Town  if  the 
Ministers  of  Boston  had  not  interposed."  Neal  appears  to  derive 
these  facts,  which  wear  a  countenance  of  probability,  from  an 
authority  not  now  known. 

The  phrase  occurs  in  Williams's  noble  letter  to  Major  Mason, 
ist  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  Collections,  i,  275  and  fol 
lowing.  The  magnanimity  shown  toward  those  opposed  to  him 
in  this  letter  is  probably  without  a  parallel  in  his  age  ;  it  has  few 
in  any  age. 

"  The  increase  of  the  concourse  of  people  to  him  on  the  Lord's 
days  in  private,  to  the  neglect  or  deserting  of  publick  Ordinances 
and  to  the  spreading  of  the  Leaven  of  his  corrupt  imaginations, 
provoked  the  Magistrates  rather  than  to  breed  a  winters  Spir- 
ituale  plague  in  the  Countrey,  to  put  upon  him  a  winter's  journey 
out  of  the  Countrey."  Master  John  Cotton's  Answer  to  Master 
Roger  Williams,  57. 

The  main  original  authorities  on  the  banishment  of  Williams 
are  Winthrop's  Journal  and  the  Massachusetts  Records  of  the 
period.  Some  facts  can  be  gathered  from  the  writings  of  Wil 
liams,  whose  autobiographical  passages  always  have  an  air  of  truth 
while  they  are  sometimes  vague  and  often  flushed  by  his  enthusi- 


The  Prophet  of  Religious  Freedom. 


astic  temper.  Cotton's  memory  is  less  to  be  trusted  ;  some  of 
his  statements  are  in  conflict  with  better  authorities.  He  no 
doubt  believed  himself  to  be  truthful,  but  his  ingenious  mind  was 
unable  to  be  precise  without  unconscious  sophistication.  Hub- 
bard  was  of  Presbyterian  tendencies  and  totally  opposed  to  all 
forms  of  Separatism.  He  appears  to  have  recorded  every  exag 
gerated  rumor  cherished  by  Williams's  antagonists  to  his  dis 
credit.  Neither  in  this  nor  in  other  matters  can  we  rely  much  on 
Hubbard's  testimony.  No  critical  student  of  history  puts  un 
questioning  confidence  in  Cotton  Mather.  His  strange  mind  could 
never  utter  truth  unvarnished.  In  a  case  like  this,  where  family 
pride,  local  feeling,  and  sectarian  prejudice  were  all  on  one 
side,  and  where  he  had  a  chance  to  embroider  upon  traditions 
already  two  generations  old,  it  is  better  to  disregard  the  author 
of  the  Magnalia  entirely.  Bentley's  Historical  Account  of  Salem, 
in  ist  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  Collections,  vi,  is  a  paper 
that  excites  admiration  for  its  broadmindedness.  It  contains  in 
formation  not  elsewhere  to  be  found,  but  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
how  far  Bentley  depended  upon  sources  not  now  accessible  and 
how  far  he  relied  on  ingenious  inferences  drawn  from  his  large 
knowledge  of  local  history.  The  publications  of  the  Narragan- 
sett  Club  contain  the  whole  controversy  between  Cotton  and 
Williams  and  all  the  letters  of  the  latter  now  known  to  be  ex 
tant.  I  have  in  some  cases  referred  to  the  originals,  in  others  I 
have  used  these  careful  reprints.  Williams  has  been  rather  for 
tunate  in  his  biographers.  Mr.  Oscar  S.  Straus,  approaching  the 
subject  from  a  fresh  standpoint,  has  produced  the  latest  Life  of 
Williams,  written  in  a  judicial  temper  and  evincing  a  rare  sym 
pathy  with  its  subject.  The  character  of  Williams  has  never  been 
better  drawn  than  by  Mr.  Straus,  pp.  231-233.  The  life  by  T. 
D.  Knowles  is  perhaps  the  best  of  the  older  biographies,  Ar 
nold's  History  of  Rhode  Island  contains  a  sketch  of  Williams, 
and  Elton's  brief  biography  has  a  value  of  its  own.  Gammell's 
Life  in  Sparks's  Biography  is  generally  fair.  "As  to  Roger  Wil 
liams,"  by  the  late  Dr.  Henry  Martyn  Dexter,  is,  what  it  pretends 
to  be,  a  partisan  statement  of  the  case  against  Williams.  It 
shows  characteristic  thoroughness  of  research,  it  clears  up  many 
minor  points,  and  is  as  erudite  as  it  is  one-sided. 

Baylie's  Sermon  before  the  House  of  Lords,  on  Errours  and 
Induration,  accuses  the  Dutch  of  mere  worldly  policy  in  toleration. 
Williams  alludes  to  the  charge,  Bloudy  Tenent  yet  more  Bloudy, 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


p.  8.  But  the  toleration  of  Holland  may  rather  be  traced  to  that 
decay  of  bigotry  and  that  widening  of  view  which  are  beneficent 
results  of  an  extended  trade.  Williams  in  the  Bloudy  Tenent 
yet  more  Bloudy,  p.  10,  complains  of  the  exclusion  of  Catholics 
and  Arminians  from  toleration  in  the  Netherlands.  It  would  carry 
us  beyond  the  range  of  the  present  work  to  inquire  how  far  the 
toleration  of  Amsterdam  was  related  to  that  "  meridian  glory  " 
which  Antwerp  reached  as  early  as  1550  by  making  itself  a  place 
of  refuge  for  the  persecuted  of  England,  France,  and  Germany. 
The  Articles  of  Union,  adopted  at  Utrecht  in  1579,  which  have 
been  often  called  the  Magna  Charta  of  the  Dutch,  go  to  show 
that  political  and  commercial  considerations  counted  in  favor  of 
toleration,  but  they  also  show  that  some  notion  of  the  sacredness 
of  the  free  conscience  had  been  adopted  among  the  Dutch. 
Article  XIII  of  the  Union  provides  that  the  states  of  Holland 
and  Zealand  shall  conduct  their  religious  affairs  as  they  think 
good.  More  qualified  arrangements  are  made  for  the  other  states, 
as  that  they  may  restrict  religious  liberty  as  they  shall  find  need 
ful  for  the  repose  and  welfare  of  the  country.  But  this  significant 
provision  is  added,  that  every  man  shall  have  freedom  of  private 
belief  without  arrest  or  inquisition  :  "  Midts  dat  een  yder  particu- 
lier  in  syn  Religie  vry  zal  moghen  blyven,  ende  dat  men  nie- 
mandt,  ter  cause  van  de  Religie,  zal  moghen  achterhalen,  ofte 
ondersoecken."  Pieter  Paulus  Verklaring  der  Unie  van  Utrecht, 
i,  229,  230.  Compare  Van  Meteren,  Nederlandsche  Historic,  etc., 
iii,  254,  255,  and  Hooft  Nederlandsche  Historic,  etc.,  Book  IX, 
where  the  full  text  of  Article  XIII  is  given. 

Barclay,  in  his  Inner  Life  of  the  Religious  Societies  of  the 
Commonwealth,  p.  97,  cites  Peter  John  Zwisck,  a  Mennonite  of 
West  Frisia,  as  the  author,  in  1609,  of  The  Liberty  of  Religion,  in 
which  he  maintains  that  men  are  not  to  be  converted  by  force. 
In  1614  one  Leonard  Busher  petitioned  James  I  in  favor  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  and  Barclay  conjectures  that  he  was  a  member  of 
that  Separatist  or  General  Baptist  church  returned  from  Holland, 
of  which  Helwyss  had  been  pastor.  In  1615  this  obscure  and 
proscribed  congregation  professed  a  great  truth,  yet  hidden  from 
the  wise  and  prudent,  namely,  that  "  earthly  authority  belonged 
to  earthly  kings,  but  spiritual  authority  belonged  to  that  one 
Spiritual  king  who  is  king  of  kings."  In  more  than  one  matter 
Roger  Williams  showed  himself  attracted  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Mennonites  and  their  offshoot  the  English  General  Baptist  body. 


The  Prophet  of  Religions  Freedom. 


Whether  directly  through  his  reading  of  Dutch  theological  works 
or  indirectly  through  English  followers  of  Dutch  writers,  Williams 
probably  derived  his  broadest  principles,  in  germ  at  least,  from 
the  Mennonites  or  Anabaptists  of  the  gentler  sort,  as  he  did  also 
some  of  his  minor  scruples.  For  the  connection  between  the 
Mennonites  of  the  Continent  and  the  English  cognate  sects  the 
reader  is  referred  to  Barclay's  Inner  Life,  a  valuable  work  of 
much  research.  See  also  the  petition  of  the  Brownists,  1641, 
cited  in  Barclay,  p.  476,  from  British  Museum,  E  34-178,  tenth 
pamphlet. 

Another  delightful  example  of  the  far-fetchedness  of  Cotton's 
logic  is  his  justification  of  the  sentence  of  banishment  against 
Williams  by  citing  Proverbs  xi,  26  :  "  He  that  withholdeth  corn, 
the  people  shall  curse  him."  This  text,  says  Cotton,  "  I  alledged 
to  prove  that  the  people  had  much  more  cause  to  separate  such 
from  amongst  them  (whether  by  Civill  or  church-censure)  as  doe 
withhold  or  separate  them  from  the  Ordinances  or  the  Ordinances 
from  them,  which  are  the  bread  of  life."  Reply  to  Williams's  Ex 
amination,  40.  The  reference  in  the  text  is  to  the  same  work,  37. 
"  Much  lesse  to  persecute  him  with  the  Civill  Sword  till  it  may 
appeare,  even  by  just  and  full  conviction,  that  he  sinneth  not  out 
of  conscience  but  against  the  very  light  of  his  own  conscience." 
But  in  Cotton's  practice  those  who  labored  with  the  heretic  were 
judges  of  how  much  argument  constituted  "just  and  full  convic 
tion."  This  logic  would  have  amply  sheltered  the  Spanish  In 
quisition. 

Cotton's  Answer  to  Williams's  Examination,  38,  39.  Cotton 
confesses  to  having  had  further  conversation  of  a  nature  unfavor 
able  to  Williams,  but  he  is  able  to  deny  that  he  counseled  his 
banishment.  Even  Cotton  could  hardly  have  prevented  it,  and 
he  confesses  that  he  approved  the  sentence.  The  only  interest 
in  the  question  is  the  exhibition  of  Cotton's  habitual  shrinking 
from  responsibility  and  his  curious  sinuosity  of  conscience. 

In  an  unpublished  work  by  Mr.  Lindsay  Swift,  of  the  Boston 
Public  Library,  which  I  have  been  kindly  permitted  to  read,  and 
which  is  a  treatise  on  the  election  sermons  mostly  existing  only 
in  manuscript,  the  author  says :  "  The  early  discourses  were  full 
of  ecclesiasticism,  a  great  deal  of  theology,  some  politics  ;  .  .  .  but 
of  humanity,  brotherly  kindness,  and  what  we  understand  by 
Christianity  in  the  human  relations,  I  have  been  able  to  discern 
very  little." 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 

Note  23, 
page  302. 


Note  24, 
page  303. 


Many  of  Roger  Williams's  scruples  were  peculiar,  but  his 
scrupulosity  was  not.  Cotton  takes  pains  to  call  pulpits  "  scaf 
folds,"  to  show  that  they  had  no  sacredness.  The  scruple  about 
the  heathen  names  of  days  of  the  week  was  felt  by  many  other 
Puritans.  It  is  evident  in  Winthrop,  and  it  did  not  wholly  dis 
appear  from  Puritan  use  until  about  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century. 

Barclay,  Inner  Life,  etc.,  410,  411,  cites  Sebastian  Franck's 
Chronica  of  1536,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  Seekers  in  fact 
if  not  in  name  existed  about  a  century  before  Williams  adopted 
their  views.  "  Some  desire  to  allow  Baptism  and  other  ceremo 
nies  to  remain  in  abeyance  till  God  gives  another  command — 
sends  out  true  laborers  into  the  harvest.  .  .  .  Some  others  agree 
with  those  who  think  the  ceremonies  since  the  death  of  the 
Apostles,  are  equally  departed,  laid  waste  and  fallen — that  God 
no  longer  heeds  them,  and  also  does  not  desire  that  they  should 
be  longer  kept,  on  which  account  they  will  never  again  be  set  up 
but  now  are  to  proceed  entirely  in  Spirit  and  in  Truth  and  now  in 
an  outward  manner."  The  relation  of  Seekerism  to  Quakerism 
is  manifest.  "  To  be  a  Seeker  is  to  be  of  the  best  Sect  next  to  a 
finder,"  wrote  Cromwell  in  1646. 


CHAPTER   THE    THIRD. 


NEW  ENGLAND  DISPERSIONS. 


THE  removal  of  Roger  Williams  and  his  friends 
was  the  beginning  of  dispersions  from  the  mother 
colony  on  Massachusetts  Bay.     The  company  that 
settled  Providence  was  too  small  in  number  at  first 
to  be  of    great    importance.     The    emigration   of 
Williams   and  his   followers    to   the    Narragansett 
country  was  an  example  that  may  have  turned  the 
scale  with  Hooker  and  his  party  in  favor  of  a  re 
moval  to  the  Connecticut  instead  of  to  some  place 
in   the   Massachusetts   wilderness.     Williams    cer 
tainly  prepared  a  harbor  for  most  of  the  Hutch- 
insonians,    and    pointed    the    way    to    Gortonists, 
Baptists,   Quakers,  and  all  others  of  uneasy  con 
science.     Providence   Plantation,  and  at  times  all 
Rhode   Island,  fell  into   disorders  inevitable  in   a 
refuge  for  scruplers  and  enthusiasts  established  by 
one  whose  energies  were   centrifugal  and  disinte 
grating.     But  when  at  length  it  emerged  from  its 
primordial  chaos  the  community  on  Narragansett 
Bay  became  of  capital  importance  as  an  example 
of  the  secularization  of  the  state,  and  of  the  con- 
gruity  of  the  largest  liberty  in  religion  with  civil 
peace.     The  system  which  the  more  highly  organ- 

315 


CHAP.  III. 

Impor 
tance  of 
the  Rhode 
Island 
colony. 


3i6 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony -Planting 


BOOK  in. 


The  Con 
necticut 
migration. 


Early  life 
of  Hooker. 


ized  and  orderly  commonwealths  of  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut  labored  so  diligently  to  establish 
— a  state  propping  and  defending  orthodoxy  and 
church  uniformity — was  early  cast  into  the  rubbish 
heap  of  the  ages.  The  principle  on  which  the 
heterogeneous  colony  of  religious  outcasts  on  Nar- 
ragansett  Bay  founded  itself,  was  stone  rejected 
that  has  become  the  head  of  the  corner. 

II. 

The  emigration  to  the  Connecticut  River  was 
already  incubating  when  Williams  sat  down  with 
his  radical  seceders  in  the  Narragansett  woods. 
The  Connecticut  settlement  was  impelled  by  more 
various  and  complicated  motives  than  that  of  Wil 
liams,  and  its  origins  are  not  so  easy  to  disentangle. 
But  it,  too,  has  an  epic  interest ;  one  dominant  per 
sonality  overtops  all  others  in  this  second  of  ven 
turesome  westward  migrations  into  the  wilderness. 

We  can  trace  nothing  of  Hooker  to  his  birth 
place,  a  little  hamlet  in  Leicestershire,  except  that 
the  imagery  of  his  discourses  in  after  life  some 
times  reflected  the  processes  of  husbandry  he  had 
known  in  childhood.  But  that  he  passed  through 
Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  while  Chaderton 
was  master,  is  more  significant,  for  Emmanuel  was 
the  cradle  of  Puritan  divines,  the  hatching-place  of 
Puritan  crotchets,  the  college  whose  chapel  stood 
north  and  south  that  it  might  have  no  sacred  east 
end,  a  chapel  in  which  "  riming  psalms  "  were  sung 
instead  of  the  hymns,  and  where  lessons  different 


New  England  Dispersions. 


317 


from  those  appointed  in  the  calendar  were  read. 
Hooker  was  presented  to  the  living  of  Chelms- 
ford,  in  Essex.  Here  his  eloquence  attracted  wide 
attention,  and  unhappily  attracted  at  the  same  time 
the  notice  of  his  diocesan  Laud,  then  Bishop  of 
London,  who  drove  the  preacher  from  his  pulpit. 
Hooker  engaged  in  teaching  a  school  four  miles 
from  Chelmsford,  wrhere  Eliot,  afterward  the  In 
dian  apostle,  became  his  usher  and  disciple.  But 
Laud  had  marked  him  as  one  to  be  brought  low. 
He  was  cited  before  the  Court  of  High  Commis 
sion,  whose  penalties  he  escaped  by  fleeing  to  Hol 
land.  Thus  early  in  his  career  Laud  unwittingly 
put  in  train  events  that  resulted  in  the  founding 
of  a  second  Puritan  colony  in  New  England. 

ill. 

The  persecution  of  Hooker  made  a  great  com 
motion  in  Essex,  dividing  attention  with  the  polit 
ical  struggle  between  the  king  and  the  people  about 
tonnage  and  poundage.  While  Hooker  was  an 
exile  in  Holland  a  company  of  people  from  Brain- 
tree  and  other  parts  of  Essex,  near  his  old  parish  of 
Chelmslord,  emigrated  to  New  England,  chiefly, 
one  may  suppose,  for  the  sake  of  good  gospel,  since 
they  came  hoping  to  tempt  Hooker  to  become 
their  pastor.  This  company  settled  at  Newtown, 
now  Cambridge,  which  had  been  projected  for  a 
fortified  capital  of  the  colony,  that  should  be  de 
fensible  against  Indians  and  out  of  reach  if  a  sea 
force  should  be  sent  from  England  to  overthrow 


CHAP.  III. 


1630. 


Hooker's 
company. 

Walker's 
First 

Church  in 
Hartford, 
40. 

Dudley's 
Letter  to 
Countess 
of  Lincoln, 
Young's 
Chron.  of 
Mass.,  320. 
Mass.  Rec 
ords, 
14  June, 
1631,  and 
3  February, 
1632. 


318 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 

Holmes's 
Hist.  Cam 
bridge, 
ist  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll., 
vii,  6-8. 


Failure  of 
Newtown 
as  a  me 
tropolis. 


Savage's 
Win- 
throp, 
i,  98,  99. 
1632. 


Wonder 
working 
Provi 
dence,  ch. 
xxviii. 

Wood's 
N.  E.  Pros 
pect,  1634. 
Young, 

402. 


the  government.  Newtown  was  palisaded  and 
otherwise  improved  at  the  expense  of  the  whole 
colony.  Hooker's  company  were  perhaps  ordered 
to  settle  there  because  no  place  was  appropriate  to 
the  great  divine  but  the  new  metropolis. 

IV. 

But  a  metropolis  can  not  be  made  at  will,  as 
many  a  new  community  has  discovered.  It  had 
been  arranged  that  all  the  "  assistants  "  or  ruling 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts  should  live  within 
the  palisades  of  Newtown,  but  Winthrop,  after  the 
frame  of  his  house  was  erected,  changed  his  mind 
and  took  down  the  timbers,  setting  them  up  again 
at  Boston.  This  was  the  beginning  of  unhappi- 
ness  at  Newrtown,  and  the  discontent  had  to  do, 
no  doubt,  with  the  rivalry  between  that  place  and 
Boston.  It  is  probable  that  there  was  a  rise  in  the 
value  of  Boston  home  lots  about  the  time  of  the 
removal  of  the  governor's  house.  Trade  runs  in 
the  direction  of  the  least  resistance,  and  peninsular 
Boston  was  destined  by  its  situation  to  be  the  me 
tropolis  of  New  England  in  spite  of  the  forces  that 
worked  for  Salem  and  Newtown. 

Newtown,  or  Cambridge,  to  call  it  by  its  later 
name,  was  a  long,  narrow  strip  of  land,  "  in  forme 
like  a  list  cut  off  from  the  Broad-cloath  "  of  Water- 
town  and  Charlestown.  The  village  was  com 
pactly  built,  as  became  an  incipient  metropolis,  and 
the  houses  were  unusually  good  for  a  new  country. 
In  one  regard  it  was  superior  to  Boston.  No 


New  England  Dispersions. 


319 


wooden  chimneys  or  thatched  roofs  were  allowed 
in  it.  To  this  town  came  Hooker,  and  if  it  had  con 
tinued  to  be  the  capital,  Hooker  and  not  Cotton 
might  have  become  the  leading  spirit  of  the  colony. 
But  a  capital  at  a  place  to  which  only  small  ves 
sels  could  come  up,  was  not  practical,  and  the 
magistrates  in  the  year  before  Hooker's  arrival 
decided  by  general  consent  that  Boston  was  the 
fittest  place  in  the  bay  for  public  meetings. 

The  hopes  of  Newtown  were  perhaps  not 
wholly  extinct  for  some  time  after.  The  arrival 
of  Hooker  must  have  been  a  great  encouragement 
to  the  people.  But  Boston  was  on  the  alert.  That 
town  had  neither  forest  nor  meadow  land.  Hay, 
timber,  and  firewood  were  brought  to  its  wharf  in 
boats.  From  the  absence  of  wood  and  marsh  came 
some  advantages — it  was  plagued  with  neither  mos 
quitoes  nor  rattlesnakes,  and  what  cattle  there  were 
on  the  bare  peninsula  were  safe  from  wolves.  Not 
to  be  behind  in  evangelical  attractions  it  secured 
Cotton  to  balance  Newtown's  Hooker,  when  both 
arrived  in  the  same  ship.  That  Boston  was  now 
recognized  as  the  natural  metropolis  was  shown  in 
the  abortive  movement  to  pay  a  part  of  Cotton's 
stipend  by  a  levy  on  the  whole  colony. 

v. 

"  Ground,  wood,  and  medowe  "  were  matters  of 
dispute  between  Newtown  and  its  neighbors  as 
early  as  1632,  and  the  frequent  references  to  ques 
tions  regarding  the  boundary  of  Newtown  go  to 


CHAP.  III. 


October, 
1632. 


Hooker's 

arrival, 

1633. 


Wood's 
N.  E.  Pros 
pect. 
Young, 
397,  398. 


Discon 
tent  at 

Newtown. 


320 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 

Mass.  Rec., 
passim. 


Wonder 
working 
Provi 
dence,  ch. 
xxxiii. 


Compare 
Holmes's 
History 
of  Cam 
bridge, 
i  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll., 
vii,  pp.  1,2. 

2d  Mass., 
vii,  127. 


Cotton  and 
Hooker. 


show  dissatisfaction  in  the  discarded  metropolis, 
the  number  of  whose  people  was  out  of  proportion 
to  its  resources.  Cattle  were  scarce  in  the  colony. 
Each  head  was  worth  about  twenty-eight  pounds, 
the  equivalent  of  several  hundred  dollars  of  money 
in  our  time.  The  Newtown  people  saw  no  pros 
pect  of  foreign  trade,  and  found  the  plowable  plains 
of  Cambridge  dry  and  sandy.  They  had  given 
up  trying  to  coax  fortunes  from  the  stony  hill  land 
of  the  town  with  hand  labor,  and  turned  their  at 
tention  to  the  more  profitable  pursuit  of  cattle- 
raising.  They  took  unusual  pains  to  protect  their 
valuable  herd  from  the  wolves  by  impaling  a  com 
mon  pasture.  Natural  meadow  was  the  only  re 
source  for  hay  in  the  English  agriculture  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  the  low  grounds  of  Cam 
bridge  yielded  a  poor  grass.  Shrewd  men  in  New- 
town  already  saw  that  as  an  agricultural  colony 
Massachusetts  was  destined  to  failure,  and  one 
Pratt,  a  surgeon  there,  was  called  to  account  for 
having  written  to  England  that  the  commonwealth 
was  "builded  on  rocks,  sands,  and  salt  marshes." 

VI. 

There  is  good  authority  for  believing  that  a  ri 
valry  between  Hooker  and  Cotton  had  quite  as  much 
to  do  with  the  discontent  as  straitened  boundaries 
and  wiry  marsh  grass.  Hooker  was  the  greatest 
debater,  perhaps,  in  the  ranks  of  the  Puritans.  His 
theology  was  somewhat  somber,  his  theory  of 
Christian  experience  of  the  most  exigent  type. 


New  England  Dispersions. 


321 


To  be  saved,  according  to  Hooker,  one  must  be 
come  so  passive  as  to  be  willing-  to  be  eternally 
damned.  In  other  regards  he  was  a  Puritan  of  a 
rather  more  primitive  type  than  Cotton.  He  knew 
no  satisfactory  evidence  of  a  man's  acceptance  with 
God  but  his  good  works.  Cotton  was  less  logical 
but  more  attractive.  His  Puritanism  grew  in  a  gar 
den  of  spices.  He  delighted  in  allegorical  interpre 
tations  of  the  Canticles,  his  severe  doctrines  were 
dulcified  with  sentiment,  and  his  conception  of  the 
inward  Christian  life  was  more  joyous  and  mystical 
and  less  legal  and  severe  than  Hooker's.  He  was 
an  adept  in  the  windings  of  non-committal  expres 
sion,  and  his  intellectual  sinuosity  was  a  resource 
in  debate  or  difficulty.  Hooker,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  a  downrightness  not  to  be  mistaken.  With 
an  advantage  in  temperament  and  the  additional 
advantage  of  position  in  the  commercial  and  po 
litical  center,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Cotton's 
ideals  eloquently  and  deftly  presented  soon  domi 
nated  the  colony  and  that  he  became  the  Delphic 
oracle  whose  utterances  were  awaited  by  the  rulers 
in  emergencies. 

Theological  differences  were  early  apparent  in 
the  teachings  of  the  two  leaders.  Trivial  enough 
to  the  modern  mind  are  these  questions  concerning 
works  as  an  evidence  of  justification  and  concern 
ing  active  and  passive  faith  in  justification.  Hook 
er  maintained  all  by  himself  that  there  was  "a 
saving  preparation  in  a  Christian  soule  before  un- 
yon  with  Christ."  The  other  ministers  pretended 


CHAP.  III. 

Compare 

Walker's 

First 

Church  of 

Hartford, 

129^-132. 


Theologi 
cal  differ 
ences. 


Note  i. 


22 


322 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Attrac 
tions  of 
Connecti 
cut. 


to  understand  what  he  meant  by  this,  and  at  first 
opposed  him  unanimously.  No  doubt,  too,  Hooker 
and  his  disciples  found  some  fault  with  the  outer 
form  of  the  church  as  shaped  by  Cotton.  Certain 
it  is  that  Hooker's  theories  of  civil  government 
were  more  liberal  and  modern  than  Cotton's, 
though  like  Cotton's  they  were  hung  upon  texts  of 
Scripture.  Hooker  lacked  Cotton's  superfluity  of 
ingenuity ;  he  had  less  imagination  and  less  poetic 
sentiment  than  Cotton,  but  his  intellect  was  more 
rugged,  practical,  and  virile.  He  was  not  a  man 
to  have  visions  of  a  political  paradise ;  he  did  not 
attempt  to  limit  citizenship  to  church  members 
when  he  framed  a  constitution  for  the  Connecticut 
towns.  Nor  did  he  give  so  much  power  and  privi 
lege  to  the  magistrate  as  was  given  in  Massachu 
setts.  He  disapproved  of  Cotton's  aristocratic  the 
ory  of  the  permanence  of  the  magistrate's  office,  as 
he  did  apparently  of  the  negative  vote  of  the  upper 
house  and  of  the  arbitrary  decisions  which  the  Mas 
sachusetts  magistrates  assumed  the  right  to  make. 

VII. 

One  other  potent  motive  there  was.  Stories  of 
the  fertility  of  the  "  intervale  "  land  on  the  Con 
necticut  River  came  by  the  mouth  of  every  daring 
adventurer  who  had  sailed  or  tramped  so  far. 
There  one  might  find  pasture  for  the  priceless 
cattle  and  hay  to  last  the  long  winter  through,  and 
in  that  valley  one  might  cultivate  plains  of  great 
fertility. 


New  England  Dispersions. 


323 


VIII. 

There  were  dangerous  Pequots  on  the  Con 
necticut,  it  is  true,  and  the  Dutch  had  already 
planted  a  trading  house  and  laid  claim  to  the  ter 
ritory.  The  Plymouth  people  who  traded  there 
were  also  claimants.  And,  more  than  all,  leaving 
Massachusetts  in  a  time  of  danger  from  the  machi 
nations  of  Laud  would  seem  desertion.  The  gov 
ernment  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony  was 
anomalous ;  it  partook  of  the  character  of  the  com 
mercial  company  from  which  it  sprang,  yet  it  had 
traits  of  a  religious  or  at  least  a  voluntary  society. 
It  was  the  accepted  opinion  that  those  who  had 
taken  the  freeman's  oath  were  "  knit "  together 
"  in  one  body,"  and  that  none  of  them  ought  to 
leave  the  colony  without  permission.  Hooker's 
party  gained  the  consent  of  a  majority  of  the  rep 
resentative  members  of  the  General  Court,  but  not 
of  a  majority  of  the  assistants.  This  precipitated 
a  debate  in  the  colony  on  the  constitutional  ques 
tion  of  the  right  of  the  assistants,  or  magistrates,  to 
form  an  upper  house  and  veto  a  decision  of  the 
chosen  deputies  of  the  towns. 

IX. 

It  is  no  part  of  our  purpose  to  unravel  the  tan 
gle  of  ecclesiastical  and  civil  politics  in  which  the 
proposed  emigration  had  now  become  involved. 
The  Dorchester  church  and  a  part  of  that  of  Water- 
town  v/ere  ready  to  follow  the  lead  of  Hooker  and 


CHAP.  III. 


Obstacles 
to  remov 
al. 


Savage's 
Winthrop, 
i,  167,  168. 


Attempts 
to  prevent 
removal. 


324 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


Explorers 
and  pio 
neers. 


Newtown.  Days  of  fasting  and  prayer  were  ap 
pointed  to  prevent  the  removal  of  these  "candle, 
sticks,"  as  the  churches  were  called,  out  of  their 
places ;  but  in  spite  of  humiliations  and  of  Cotton's 
persuasive  eloquence,  which  at  one  time  almost 
charmed  away  the  discontent,  the  emigration  set 
in,  stragglingly  at  first. 

John  Oldham,  an  adventurous  man  of  a  rather 
lawless  temper — one  of  those  half-ruffians  that  are 
most  serviceable  on  an  Indian  frontier — had  been 
expelled  from  Plymouth.  He  was  now  a  resident 
of  Watertown,  one  of  the  centers  of  discontent  and 
next  neighbor  to  Newtown.  He  had  gone  with 
three  others  on  a  trading  expedition  to  the  west 
ward  overland.  Walking  along  trails  from  one 
Indian  village  to  another  they  discovered  a  large 
river,  which  they  found  to  be  the  Fresh  River  of 
the  Dutch  and  the  Connecticut  of  the  Plymouth 
traders.  They  probably  brought  back  to  Water- 
town  accounts  that  produced  a  fever  for/removal. 
Oldham  was  not  a  man  to  stand  on  the  manner  of 
his  emigration.  Waiting  for  nobody's  consent,  he 
led  out  a  small  company  from  Watertown  the  next 
year.  These  settled  at  what  is  now  Wethersfield. 
From  Dorchester,  which  had  no  alewife  fishery 
with  which  to  enrich  its  fields,  settlers  removed  in 
1634  to  the  Connecticut,  where  the  soil  did  not 
need  to  be  "fished."  In  1635  the  number  of  emi 
grants  was  larger,  and  there  was  much  suffering 
during  the  following  winter  and  many  of  the  cattle 
perished. 


New  England  Dispersions. 


325 


X. 

But  the  unit  of  New  England  migration  was  the 
church.  No  doubt  the  cohesiveness  of  the  town 
ships,  and  of  the  churches  which  were  the  nuclei  of 
the  towns,  was  re-enforced  by  provincial  differences 
between  the  several  communities.  In  1636  Hooker, 
the  real  founder  of  Connecticut,  and  his  congrega 
tion  of  Essex  people,  sold  their  houses  and  mead 
ows  and  home  lots  and  acre  rights  in  the  com 
monage  in  Cambridge  to  a  new  congregation  led 
by  Thomas  Shepard.  From  Newtown  and  from 
Dorchester  the  churches  emigrated  bodily — pas 
tors,  teachers,  ruling  elders,  and  deacons — carrying 
their  organization  with  them  through  the  wilder 
ness  like  an  ark  of  the  covenant.  New  churches 
were  soon  afterward  formed  in  the  places  they 
had  left.  Naturally,  town  government  became  the 
principal  feature  of  civil  organization  in  states  thus 
planted  by  separate  and  coherent  groups. 

XL 

The  Connecticut  rulers  acted  at  first  as  a  gov 
ernment  subordinate  to  Massachusetts  ;  but  the  set 
tlements,  except  that  of  people  from  Roxbury  at 
Springfield,  were  south  of  the  line  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  colony,  and  it  was  not  in  the  nature  of 
things  that  Hooker  and  Haynes  should  subordinate 
themselves  to  Cotton  and  Winthrop.  There  was 
indeed  no  little  exasperation  between  the  two  col 
onies.  An  independent  constitution  was  adopted 


CHAP.  III. 


Emigra 
tion  by 
churches. 


'636. 


Note  3, 


The  new 
govern 
ment. 


326 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 


Conn. 
Hist.  Soc. 
Coll.,  i,  20, 
21. 


Conn. 
Hist.  Soc. 
Coll.,  i,  3, 
and  ff. 


Instability 
of  a  the 
ocracy. 


in  Connecticut,  on  principles  which  Hooker  thought 
he  found  in  the  first  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  and 
which  were  not  exactly  those  that  Cotton  had  man 
aged  to  deduce  from  Scripture  in  his  Model  of 
Moses  his  Judicials.  The  Massachusetts  people, 
whose  government  aspired  to  dominate  all  New 
England,  seem  to  have  been  angered  by  Hooker's 
secession  and  by  his  refusal  to  subordinate  the  new 
state  to  their  own.  Massachusetts  asserted  its  au 
thority  over  Springfield,  which  was  within  its  lim 
its,  and  every  effort  possible  was  made  to  prevent 
new  emigrants  who  landed  at  Boston  from  going 
to  the  west.  Even  in  England  accounts  adverse  to 
Connecticut  were  circulated.  Hooker,  the  real 
head  of  the  new  state,  resented  this  in  a  letter  of 
great  vigor  and  some  passion. 

XII. 

In  its  early  years  Massachusetts  had  no  rest. 
Three  profound  disturbances — the  expulsion  of 
Williams,  the  secession  of  Hooker  and  his  follow 
ers,  and  the  Hutchinsonian  convulsion — followed 
one  another  in  breathless  succession,  and  a  danger 
ous  Indian  war  ran  its  course  at  the  same  time. 
That  the  early  settlements  were  founded  on 
"  rocks  and  sands  and  salt  marshes  "  was  not  the 
chief  misfortune  of  the  Bay  colony.  Its  ecclesi 
astical  politics  proved  explosive,  to  the  consterna 
tion  of  its  pious  founders,  who  like  other  settlers 
in  Utopia  had  neglected  to  reckon  with  human 
nature. 


New  England  Dispersions. 


327 


XIII. 

It  has  been  the  habit  of  modern  writers  on  the 
subject  to  dismiss  the  Hutchinsonian  controversy 
as  a  debate  about  meaningless  propositions  in  an 
incomprehensible  jargon.  Yet  there  was  in  it  but 
the  action  of  well-known  tendencies  in  human  na 
ture  which  might  almost  have  been  predicted  from 
the  antecedent  circumstances.  Puritanism  had 
wrapped  itself  in  the  haircloth  of  austerity,  it  took 
grim  delight  in  harsh  forbiddings,  and  heaped  up 
whole  decalogues  of  thou-shalt-nots.  Nor  did  it 
offer,  as  other  intense  religious  movements  have 
done,  the  compensation  of  internal  joys  for  the 
gayety  it  repressed.  Theoretically  Calvinist,  it  was 
practically  an  ascetic  system  of  external  duties  and 
abstentions,  trampling  on  the  human  spirit  without 
ruth. 

But  the  heart  will  not  be  perpetually  repressed  ; 
kept  from  natural  pleasures,  it  will  seek  supernatu 
ral  delights.  Men  were  certain  sooner  or  later  to 
soften  the  iron  rigidity  of  Puritanism  by  cultivating 
those  subjective  joys  for  which  Calvinism  provided 
abundant  materials.  While  preachers  like  Hooker 
were  scourging  the  soul  into  a  self-abasement  that 
could  approve  its  own  damnation,  and  while  in 
genious  scribes  were  amassing  additional  burdens 
of  scruple  for  heavy-laden  shoulders,  there  arose  in 
England  a  new  school  of  Puritan  pietists.  These 
shirked  none  of  the  requirements  of  the  legalists, 
but  their  spirits  sought  the  sunnier  nooks  of  Calvin- 


CHAP.  III. 


Severity 
of  Puri 
tanism. 


Reaction 
toward  a 
subjective 
joyous- 
ness. 


328 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Magnalia 
B.  Ill,  c. 
1,32. 


Compare 
Cotton's 
Fountain 
of  Life,  35. 


Note  4. 


Note  5. 


Shepard's 
Memoirs 
in  Young, 
505. 


ism,  and  they  preached  the  joy  of  the  elect  and  the 
delight  of  a  fully  assured  faith.  Cotton,  whose  fair 
complexion,  brown  hair,  and  ruddy  countenance 
attested  a  sanguine  temperament,  belonged  by  na 
ture  to  this  new  order.  He  rejoiced  that  he  had 
received  the  "  witness  of  the  Spirit "  on  his  wedding 
day,  and  he  delighted  to  draw  out  Scripture  im 
agery  to  a  surprising  tenuity  in  describing  the 
"  covenant  of  marriage  "  and  the  intimacy  of  the 
"  covenant  of  salt "  or  of  friendship  between  God 
and  the  soul  of  the  believer.  Preachers  of  the 
same  sort  brought  relief  to  multitudes  in  various 
towns  of  England.  The  people,  tired  of  churchly 
routine  on  the  one  hand  and  of  legalism  on  the 
other,  thronged  to  hear  such  divines  "  filling  the 
doores  and  windows."  It  was  the  evangelicalism 
of  the  following  century  sending  up  its  shoots 
prematurely  into  a  frosty  air.  The  old-fashioned 
Puritan  had  always  conceived  of  religion  as  diffi 
cult  of  attainment.  It  was  a  paradoxical  system 
wherein  men  were  saved  by  the  works  they  the 
oretically  abjured.  Conservative  Puritans  com 
plained  of  the  preachers  who  spread  a  table  of 
"  dainties,"  as  though  it  were  meritorious  to  sustain 
the  soul  on  a  rugged  diet  of  rough  doctrine.  In 
Thomas  Shepard's  Memoirs  of  his  own  Life  we 
may  overhear  "  a  godly  company  "  of  the  time  in 
familiar  "  discourse  about  the  wrath  of  God  and  the 
terror  of  it,  and  how  intolerable  it  was  ;  which  they 
did  present  by  fire,  how  intolerable  the  torment  of 
that  was  for  a  time  ;  what,  then,  would  eternity  be  ?  " 


New  England  Dispersions. 


329 


XIV. 

Cotton  professed  that  he  loved  to  sweeten  his 
mouth  with  a  piece  of  Calvin  before  he  went  to 
sleep.  His  emotional  rendering  of  Calvinistic  doc 
trines  wrought  strongly  on  the  people  of  the  new 
Boston,  and  his  advent  was  followed  by  widespread 
religious  excitement.  More  people  were  admitted 
to  the  church  in  Boston  in  the  earlier  months  of 
Cotton's  residence  than  to  all  the  other  churches  in 
the  colony.  Boston  seems  to  have  become  religious 
in  a  pervasive  way,  and  in  1635  measures  were 
taken  to  prevent  persons  who  were  not  likely  to 
unite  with  the  church  from  settling  in  the  town. 
In  this  community,  which  had  no  intellectual  in 
terest  but  religion,  and  from  which  ordinary  di 
versions  were  banished,  there  were  sermons  on 
Sunday  and  religious  lectures  on  week  days  and 
ever-recurring  meetings  in  private  houses.  The 
religious  pressure  was  raised  to  the  danger  point, 
and  an  explosion  of  some  sort  was  well-nigh  inevi 
table.  Cotton's  enthusiasms  were  modulated  by 
the  soft  stop  of  a  naturally  placid  temper,  but 
when  communicated  to  others  they  were  more  dan 
gerous. 

XV. 

Mrs.  Anne  Hutchinson  had  been  one  of  Cotton's 
ardent  disciples  in  old  Boston.  She  crossed  the 
sea  with  her  husband  that  she  might  sit  under 
his  ministry  in  New  England.  She  was  a  woman 


CHAP.  III. 


Cotton's 
revival 
ism. 


Win- 

throp's 
Journal,  i, 
144. 


Report  of 
Record 
Com.  ii,  5. 
Boston 
Town 
Records, 
1635. 
Hutchin 
son  Papers, 
p.  88. 


Mrs. 

Hutchin- 
son's  char 
acter. 


330 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


cursed  with  a  natural  gift  for  leadership  in  an  age 
that  had  no  place  for  such  women.  "  This  Master 
piece  of  Womens  wit,"  the  railing  Captain  Johnson 
calls  her,  and  certainly  her  answers  before  the  Mas 
sachusetts  General  Court  go  to  show  that  she  was 
not  inferior  in  cleverness  to  any  of  the  magistrates 
or  ministers.  Winthrop,  whose  antipathy  to  her 
was  a  passion,  speaks  of  her  "  sober  and  profitable 
carriage,"  and  says  that  she  was  "  very  helpful  in 
the  time  of  childbirth  and  other  occasions  of  bodily 
infirmities,  and  well  furnished  with  means  to  those 
purposes."  In  the  state  of  medical  science  at  that 
time  such  intelligent  and  voluntary  ministration 
from  a  "gentlewoman"  must  have  been  highly  val 
ued.  Almost  alone  of  the  religionists  of  her  time 
she  translated  her  devotion  into  philanthropic  exer 
tion.  But  a  woman  of  her  "  nimble  and  active  wit  " 
could  not  pass  her  life  in  bodily  ministrations. 
Power  seeks  expression,  and  her  native  eloquence 
was  sure  to  find  opportunity.  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
made  use  of  the  usual  gathering  of  gossips  on  the 
occasion  of  childbirth  to  persuade  the  women  to 
that  more  intimate  religious  life  of  which  she  was 
an  advocate.  It  was  the  custom  to  hold  devotion 
at  concert  pitch  by  meetings  at  private  houses  for 
men  only ;  women  might  be  edified  by  their  hus 
bands  at  home.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  ventured  to  open 
a  little  meeting  for  women.  This  was  highly  ap 
proved  at  first,  and  grew  to  unexpected  dimensions  ; 
fifty,  and  sometimes  eighty,  of  the  principal  women 
of  the  little  town  were  present  at  her  conferences. 


New  England  Dispersions. 


331 


XVI. 

In  these  meetings  she  emphasized  Cotton's  favor 
ite  doctrine  of  "a  covenant  of  grace."  Her  sensi 
tive  woman's  nature  no  doubt  had  beat  its  wings 
against  the  bars  of  legalism.  She  was  not  a  phi 
losopher,  but  nothing  could  be  more  truly  in  accord 
with  the  philosophy  of  character  than  her  desire  to 
give  to  conduct  a  greater  spontaneity.  Cotton  him 
self  preached  in  the  same  vein.  In  addition  to  the 
Reformation,  of  which  Puritans  made  so  much,  he 
looked  for  something  more  which  he  called,  in  the 
phrase  of  the  Apocalypse,  "  the  first  resurrection." 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  who  was  less  prudent  and  more 
virile  than  Cotton,  did  not  hesitate  to  describe 
most  of  the  ministers  in  the  colony  as  halting  under 
a  "  covenant  of  works."  Her  doctrine  was,  at  bot 
tom,  an  insurrection  against  the  vexatious  legalism 
of  Puritanism.  She  carried  her  rebellion  so  far 
that  she  would  not  even  admit  that  good  works 
were  a  necessary  evidence  of  conversion.  It  was 
the  particular  imbecility  of  the  age  that  thought  of 
almost  every  sort  must  spin  a  cocoon  of  theolog 
ical  phrases  for  itself.  Spontaneity  of  religious 
and  moral  action  represented  itself  to  Mrs.  Hutch 
inson  and  her  followers  as  an  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  believer  and  as  a  personal  union 
with  Christ  whom  they  identified  with  the  "  new 
creature  "  of  Paul.  Such  a  hardening  of  metaphor 
into  dogma  is  one  of  the  commonest  phenomena 
of  religious  thought. 


CHAP.  III. 


Mrs. 

Hutchin- 
son's  doc 
trines. 

Compare 
Whele- 
wright's 
Sermon  in 
Proc.  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc., 
1866,  265. 
Cotton's 
Sermon 
on  the 
Churches 
Resurrec 
tion,  1642. 


332 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


XVII. 

Sir  Henry  Vane  the  younger,  who  had  become 
an  ardent  Puritan  in  spite  of  his  father,  landed  in 
Boston  in  October,  1635.  He  had  already  shown 
those  gifts  which  enabled  him  afterward  to  play  a 
considerable  part  in  English  history.  His  high 
connections  made  him  an  interesting  figure,  and 
though  only  about  twenty-six  years  of  age  he  was 
chosen  governor  in  May,  1636.  Ardent  by  nature, 
and  yet  in  his  youth  when  he  "  forsook  the  honors 
and  preferments  of  the  court  to  enjoy  the  ordi 
nances  of  Christ  in  their  purity,"  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  that  he  should  be  captivated  by  the 
seraphic  Cotton  and  that  he  should  easily  adopt 
the  transcendental  views  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 
Winthrop,  the  natural  leader  of  the  colony,  having 
given  place  in  1635  to  Haynes,  perhaps  in  order 
that  Hooker's  party  might  be  conciliated  and  the 
Connecticut  emigration  avoided,  was  a  second  time 
thrust  aside  that  a  high-born  youth  might  be  hon 
ored.  Winthrop  was  utterly  opposed  to  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  in  whose  teachings  his  apprehensive 
spirit  saw  full-fledged  Antinomianism,  and,  by  in 
ference,  potential  anabaptism,  blasphemy,  and  sedi 
tion.  The  Hutchinsonians  were  partisans  of  Vane, 
who  adhered  to  their  doctrine.  The  ministers  other 
than  Cotton  and  Whelewright,  stung  by  the  impu 
tation  that  they  were  under  "a  covenant  of  works," 
rallied  about  Winthrop.  Political  cleavage  and  re- 
ligious  division  unfortunately  coincided. 


New  England  Dispersions. 


333 


XVIII. 

Supported  by  the  prestige  of  the  young  gov 
ernor  and  of  some  conspicuous  citizens  and  inspired 
by  Cotton's  metaphorical  and  mystical  preaching, 
which  was  interpreted  with  latitude,  the  enthusi 
asm  of  the  Hutchinsonians  tended  to  become  fanat 
icism.  We  have  to  depend  mainly  on  the  preju 
diced  account  of  their  enemies,  but  there  is  little 
reason  to  doubt  that  the  advocates  of  "  a  covenant 
of  grace  "  assumed  the  airs  of  superiority  usually 
seen  in  those  who  have  discovered  a  short  cut  to 
perfection.  The  human  spirit  knows  few  greater 
consolations  than  well-disguised  self-righteousness. 
The  followers  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  if  we  may  be 
lieve  the  witnesses,  sometimes  showed  their  sanctity 
by  walking  out  of  meeting  when  a  preacher  not 
under  "  a  covenant  of  grace  "  entered  the  pulpit. 
They  even  interrupted  the  services  with  controver 
sial  questions  addressed  to  the  minister.  Wilson, 
pastor  of  the  Boston  church,  was  condemned  by 
them  as  being  under  "a  covenant  of  works,"  and 
also  incidentally  criticised  for  his  "  thick  utter 
ance."  Nor  can  one  find  that  Cotton  interposed 
his  authority  to  protect  his  less  gifted  colleague. 
It  is  quite  conceivable  that  he  looked  with  some 
satisfaction  on  the  progress  of  affairs  in  Boston. 
The  heavenly  minded  young  governor  who  had 
chosen  to  suffer  reproach  with  the  people  of  God 
was  his  disciple.  The  brilliant  woman  who  was 
easily  the  leader  of  the  town  was  the  very  apostle 


CHAP.  III. 


Arrogance 
of  the 
Hutchin 
son  party. 


1636. 


334 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


Cotton's 
Churches 
Resurrec 
tion,  p.  27. 


Bitterness 
of  the  de 
bate. 


of  his  doctrine.  The  superiority  of  his  opinions 
on  a  union  with  Christ  that  preceded  active  faith 
as  compared  with  those  of  Hooker  and  the  lesser 
divines  was  enthusiastically  asserted  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  Boston  church,  led  by  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson.  Seeing  so  much  zeal  and  sound  doctrine  he 
may  have  felt  that  the  first  or  spiritual  resurrection 
of  which  he  was  wont  to  prophesy  from  the  Apoca 
lypse,  had  already  begun  in  his  own  congregation, 
and  that  among  these  enthusiasts  were  those  who 
had  learned  to  "  buy  so  as  though  they  bought 
not" — those  who  had  been  lifted  into  a  crystalline 
sphere  where  they  had  "  the  Moone  under  their 
feet.  And  if  we  have  the  Moone  under  our  feete, 
then  wee  are  not  eclipsed  when  the  Moone  is 
Eclipsed."  Thus  did  Cotton's  imagination  revel 
in  cosmical  imagery. 

XIX. 

The  arrogance  of  the  elect  is  hard  to  bear,  and 
it  is  not  wonderful  that  the  debate  waxed  hot. 
The  concentrated  religiousness  of  a  town  that 
sought  to  shut  out  unbelieving  residents  made  the 
dispute  dangerous.  In  the  rising  tempest  a  ballast 
of  ungodly  people  might  have  been  serviceable. 
But  in  Boston  there  were  few  even  of  the  indiffer 
ent  to  be  buffers  in  the  religious  collision.  While 
the  covenant-of-grace  people  made  themselves  of 
fensive,  their  opponents, — Winthrop,  the  slighted 
ex-governor,  Wilson,  the  unpopular  pastor,  and  the 
ministers  accused  of  being  under  a  covenant  of 


New  England  Dispersions. 


335 


works — resorted  to  the  favorite  weapons  of  po 
lemics.  They  hatched  a  brood  of  inferences  from 
the  opinions  Mrs.  Hutchinson  held,  or  was  thought 
to  hold,  and  then  made  her  responsible  for  the 
ugly  bantlings.  They  pretended  to  believe,  and 
no  doubt  did  believe,  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  eso~- 
teric  teaching  was  worse  than  what  she  gave  out. 
They  borrowed  the  names  of  ancient  heresies,  long 
damned  by  common  consent,  to  give  odium  to  her 
doctrine.  That  the  new  party  should  be  called  An- 
tinomian  was  plausible ;  the  road  they  had  chosen 
for  escape  from  Puritan  legalism  certainly  lay  in 
that  direction.  But  Antinomianism  had  suffered 
from  an  imputation  of  immorality,  and  no  such 
tendency  was  apparent,  unless  by  logical  deduc 
tion,  in  the  doctrines  taught  in  Boston.  The  hear 
ers  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  were  also  accused  of  hav 
ing  accepted  the  doctrines  of  the  so-called  Family 
of  Love  which  had  of  old  been  accused  of  many 
detestable  things,  and  was  a  common  bugaboo  of 
theology  at  the  time.  The  whole  town  of  Boston 
and  the  whole  colony  of  Massachusetts  was  set  in 
commotion  by  the  rude  theological  brawl.  Such 
was  the  state  of  combustion  in  Boston  that  it  was 
thought  necessary  by  the  opponents  of  Vane  and 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  to  hold  the  court  of  elections  at 
the  former  capital,  Newtown.  The  excitement  at 
this  court  was  so  great  that  the  church  members, 
who  only  could  vote,  were  on  the  point  of  laying 
violent  hands  on  one  another  in  a  contest  growing 
out  of  a  question  relating  to  the  indwelling  of  the 


CHAP.  III. 


Over 
throw  of 
Vane,  1637. 


336 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  in. 


The  Synod 
of  1637. 


Short 

Story  of 

the  Rise, 

Reign,  etc., 

passim. 

Win- 

throp's 

Journal,  i, 

284,  and 

following. 

Cotton's 

Way  of  the 

Churches 

Cleared, 

passim. 


The  perse 
cution. 


Holy  Ghost.     Vane  was  defeated,  and  Winthrop 
again  made  governor. 

xx. 

A  great  synod  of  elders  from  all  the  New  Eng 
land  churches  was  assembled.  All  the  way  from 
Ipswich  and  Newbury  on  the  east  and  from  the 
Connecticut  on  the  west  the  "  teaching  elders " 
made  their  way  by  water  or  by  land,  at  public  ex 
pense,  that  they  might  help  the  magistrates  of  Mas 
sachusetts  to  decide  on  what  they  should  compel 
the  churches  to  believe.  For  more  than  three 
weeks  the  synod  at  Cambridge  wrestled  with  the 
most  abstruse  points  of  doctrine.  The  governor 
frequently  had  to  interpose  to  keep  the  peace ; 
sometimes  he  adjourned  the  assembly,  to  give  time 
for  heats  to  cool.  A  long  list  of  errors,  most  of 
which  were  not  held  by  anybody  in  particular, 
were  condemned.  A  nearly  unanimous  conclusion 
on  certain  fine-spun  doctrines  was  reached  at  length 
by  means  of  affirmations  couched  in  language 
vague  or  ambiguous.  Cotton,  who  had  been  forced 
after  debate  to  recant  one  opinion  and  modify 
others,  assented  to  the  inconclusive  conclusions, 
but  with  characteristic  non-committalism  he  quali 
fied  his  assent  and  withheld  his  signature. 

XXI. 

The  field  was  now  cleared  for  the  orderly  per 
secution  of  the  dissentients.  Whelewright,  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  brother-in-law,  had  been  convicted  of 


New  England  Dispersions. 


337 


sedition  in  the  preceding  March  on  account  of  an 
imprudent  sermon  preached  on  a  fast  day.  But  his 
sentence  had  been  deferred  from  court  to  court,  ap 
parently  until  after  the  synod.  At  the  November 
court  following  the  synod  Whelewright  was  ban 
ished,  and  those  who  had  signed  a  rather  vigorous 
petition  in  his  favor  many  long  months  before  were 
arraigned  and  banished  or  otherwise  punished. 
The  banished  included  some  of  the  most  intelligent 
and  conspicuous  residents.  Not  until  this  Novem 
ber  court  had  her  opponents  ventured  to  bring 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  to  trial.  Whelewright,  standing 
by  his  hot-headed  sermon,  had  just  been  sentenced ; 
the  abler  but  more  timid  Cotton  had  already  been 
overborne  and  driven  into  a  safe  ambiguity  by  the 
tremendous  pressure  of  the  great  synod.  Vane 
had  left  the  colony,  and  the  time  was  ripe  to  finish 
the  work  of  extirpation.  The  elders  were  sum 
moned  to  be  present  and  advise. 


During  a  two  days'  trial,  conducted  inquisitori- 
ally,  like  an  English  Court  of  High  Commission, 
Cambridge  presented  the  spectacle  of  a  high-spir 
ited  and  gifted  woman,  at  the  worst  but  a  victim 
of  enthusiasm,  badgered  by  the  court  and  by  the 
ministers,  whose  dominant  order  she  had  attacked. 
Cotton,  with  more  than  his  usual  courage,  stood 
her  defender.  The  tough-fibered  Hugh  Peter,  who 
made  himself  conspicuous  in  several  ways,  took  it 

on  him  to  rebuke  Cotton  for  saying  a  word  in  de- 
23 


CHAP.  III. 


Mass.  Rec., 
i,  207. 


Mrs. 

Hutchin- 
son's  trial, 
1637. 


Hutchin 
son 's  Hist, 
of  Mass. 
Bay,  ii, 
appendix. 


338 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony -Plant  ing. 


BOOK  in. 
Note  7. 


fense  of  the  accused.  Endecott  and  Hugh  Peter, 
mates  well  matched,  browbeat  the  witnesses  who 
appeared  in  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  behalf,  and  Dudley, 
the  conscientious  advocate  of  persecution,  was 
rude  and  overbearing.  Winthrop  acted  as  chief 
inquisitor,  the  narrow  sincerity  and  superstition  of 
his  nature  obscuring  the  nobler  qualities  of  the 
man. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  defended  herself  adroitly  at 
first,  refusing  to  be  trapped  into  self-condemnation. 
But  her  natural  part  was  that  of  an  outspoken  agi 
tator,  and  her  religious  exaltation  had  been  in 
creased,  doubtless,  by  persecution,  for  combative- 
ness  is  a  stimulant  even  to  zeal.  On  the  second 
day  she  threw  away  "  the  fear  of  man,"  and  de 
clared  that  she  had  an  inward  assurance  of  her  de 
liverance,  adding  that  the  General  Court  would 
suffer  disaster.  For  this  prophesying  she  was 
promptly  condemned.  Cotton  had  prophesied 
notably  on  one  occasion,  Wilson,  his  colleague,  was 
given  to  rhyming  prophecies,  and  Hooker  had 
made  a  solemn  prediction  while  in  Holland.  In 
this  very  year  the  plan  of  the  Pequot  campaign  had 
been  radically  changed  in  compliance  with  a  reve 
lation  vouchsafed  to  the  chaplain,  Stone.  But  these 
were  ministers,  and  never  was  the  ministerial  office 
so  reverenced  as  by  the  Puritans,  who  professed  to 
strip  it  of  every  outward  attribute  of  priestliness. 
Above  all,  for  a  woman  to  teach  and  to  ha-ve 
revelations  was  to  stand  the  world  on  its  head. 
"  We  do  not  mean  to  discourse  with  those  of  your 


New  England  Dispersions. 


339 


sex,"  etc.,  said  VVinthrop  severely  to  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son  during  the  trial.  She  was  sentenced  to  ban 
ishment,  but  reprieved,  that  the  church  might  deal 
with  her.  On  the  persuasion  of  Cotton  and  others, 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  wrote  a  recantation  apologizing 
for  her  assumption  to  have  revelations,  and  retract 
ing  certain  opinions  of  which  she  had  been  accused. 
But  she  added  that  she  had  never  intended  to 
teach  or  to  hold  these  opinions.  For  this  false 
hood,  as  it  was  deemed,  she  was  summarily  excom 
municated.  Yet  nothing  seems  more  probable  than 
that  her  hyperbolic  utterances  under  excitement 
had  not  stood  for  dogmatic  opinions.  Under  Cot 
ton's  fine-spun  system  of  church  government  a 
member  could  not  be  excommunicated  except  by 
unanimous  consent.  Many  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
friends  were  absent  from  the  colony,  others  had 
prudently  changed  sides  or  stayed  away  from  the 
meeting.  But  her  sons  ventured  to  speak  in  her 
behalf.  Cotton  at  once  admonished  them.  The 
effect  of  putting  them  under  admonition  was  to  dis 
franchise  them  ;  it  was  one  of  Cotton's  ingenuities 
of  the  sanctuary.  The  sons  out  of  the  way,  the 
mother  was  cast  out  unanimously — a  punishment 
much  dreaded  among  the  Puritans,  who  believed 
that  what  was  thus  bound  on  earth  was  bound  in 
heaven.  It  was  a  ban  that  forbade  the  faithful 
even  to  eat  with  her.  But  the  melancholy  under 
which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  suffered  vanished  at 
once,  and  she  said  as  she  left  the  church  assembly, 
"  Better  to  be  cast  out  than  to  deny  Christ." 


CHAP.  III. 

Mrs. 

Hutchin 
son  is  ex- 
communi 
cated. 


Note  8. 


Rise, 
Reign, 
Ruine,etc., 
and  Win- 
throp's 
Journal,  i, 
309.  310- 


340 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 


Omens 

and  augu- 


Savage's 
Win- 
throp's 
Journal,  i, 
313,  3i6; 
ii,  n,  and 
Short 
Story  of 
Rise  and 
Reign  of 
Antino- 


Winthrop, 
i,  316. 


XXIII. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  most  of  her  party  settled 
on  Rhode  Island,  where  they  sheltered  themselves 
at  first  in  caves  dug  in  the  ground.  Here  she 
again  attracted  attention  by  the  charm  of  her  elo 
quent  teaching,  and  some  came  from  afar  to  hear 
the  "  she  Gamaliel,"  as  her  opponents  called  her. 
Such  gifts  in  a  woman,  and  in  one  who  had  been 
excommunicated  by  the  authority  vested  in  the 
church,  could  be  accounted  for  only  by  attributing 
her  power  to  sorcery.  Winthrop  sets  down  the 
evidence  that  she  was  a  witch,  which  consisted  in 
her  frequent  association  with  Jane  Hawkins,  the 
midwife,  who  sold  oil  of  mandrakes  to  cure  bar 
renness,  and  who  was  known  to  be  familiar  with 
the  devil.  At  length  "  God  stepped  in,"  and  by 
his  "  casting  voice  "  proved  which  side  was  right. 
Mary  Dyer,  one  of  the  women  who  followed  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  had  given  birth  to  a  deformed  still 
born  child.  This  fact  became  known  when  Mrs. 
Dyer  left  the  church  with  the  excommunicated 
Mrs.  Hutchinson.  Winthrop  had  the  monstrosity 
exhumed  after  long  burial  had  rendered  its  traits 
difficult  to  distinguish.  He  examined  it  person 
ally  with  little  result,  but  he  published  in  England 
incredible  midwife's  tales  about  it.  God  stepped 
in  once  more,  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  herself,  after 
she  went  to  Rhode  Island,  suffered  a  maternal  mis 
fortune  of  another  kind.  The  wild  reports  that 
were  circulated  regarding  this  event  are  not  fit  to 


New  England  Dispersions. 


341 


be  printed  even  in  a  note  ;  the  first  editor  of  Win- 
throp's  journal  felt  obliged  to  render  the  words 
into  Latin  in  order  that  scholars  might  read  them 
shamefacedly.  But  Cotton,  who  was  by  this  time 
redeeming  himself  by  a  belated  zeal  against  the 
banished  sectaries,  repeated  the  impossible  tale, 
which  was  far  worse  than  pathological,  to  men  and 
women,  callow  youths,  young  maidens,  and  inno 
cent  children  "  in  the  open  assembly  at  Boston  on 
a  lecture  day,"  explaining  the  divine  intent  to  sig 
nalize  her  error  in  denying  inherent  righteousness. 
The  governor,  who  was  more  cautious,  wrote  to 
the  physician  and  got  a  correct  report,  from  which 
the  divine  purpose  was  not  so  evident,  and  Cotton 
made  a  retraction  at  the  next  lecture.  We  are 
now  peering  into  the  abyss  of  seventeenth-century 
credulity.  Here  are  a  grave  ruler  and  a  di 
vine  once  eminent  at  the  university,  and  now 
renowned  in  England  and  in  America,  wallowing 
in  a  squalid  superstition  in  comparison  with  which 
the  divination  of  a  Roman  haruspex  is  dignified. 

Having  suffered  the  loss  of  her  husband,  and 
hearing  of  efforts  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts  to 
annex  Rhode  Island,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  removed  to 
the  Dutch  colony  of  New  Netherland  with  her 
family.  Here  she  and  all  her  household  except 
one  child  were  massacred  by  the  Indians.  This 
act  of  Providence  was  hailed  as  a  final  refutation 
of  her  errors,  the  more  striking  that  the  place 
where  she  suffered  was  not  far  removed  from  a 
place  called  Hell  Gate. 


342 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


BOOK  III. 


Results  of 
ecclesias 
tical  gov 
ernment. 


XXIV. 

This  famous  controversy  lets-in  much  light  up 
on  the  character  of  the  age  and  the  nature  of  Puri 
tanism.  It  is  one  of  many  incidents  that  reveal  the 
impracticability  of  the  religious  Utopia  attempted 
in  New  England.  The  concentration  of  religious 
people  undoubtedly  produced  a  community  free 
from  the  kind  of  disorders  that  are  otherwise  in 
separable  from  a  pioneer  state  and  that  were  found 
abundantly  in  New  Netherland,  in  Maryland,  and  in 
Virginia  and  on  the  eastward  fishing  coast.  "  These 
English  live  soberly,"  said  a  Dutch  visitor  to  Hart 
ford  in  1639,  "  drinking  but  three  times  at  a  meal, 
and  when  a  man  drinks  to  drunkenness  they  tie 
him  to  a  post  and  whip  him  as  they  do  thieves  in 
Holland."  But  while  some  of  the  good  results  to 
be  looked  for  in  an  exclusively  Puritan  community 
were  attained,  it  was  at  the  cost  of  exaggerating 
the  tendency  to  debate  and  fanaticism  and  develop 
ing  the  severity,  the  intolerance,  and  the  meddle 
some  petty  tyranny  that  inheres  in  an  ecclesiastical 
system  of  government.  During  the  lifetime  of  one 
generation  Massachusetts  suffered  all  these,  and  it  is 
doubtful  whether  regularity  of  morals  was  not  pur 
chased  at  too  great  a  sacrifice  of  liberty,  bodily  and 
spiritual,  and  of  justice.  Certainly  the  student  of 
history  views  with  relief  the  gradual  relaxation 
that  came  after  the  English  Restoration  and  the 
disappearance  from  the  scene  of  the  latest  surviv 
ors  of  the  first  generation  of  New  England  leaders. 


^ 


Nciu  England  Dispersions. 


XXV. 

During  the  period  of  the  greatest  excitement 
over  the  Hutchinson  case  John  Davenport,  a  noted 
Puritan  minister  of  London,  had  been  in  Massachu 
setts.  Like  many  other  emigrant  divines  of  the 
time  he  brought  a  migrant  parish  with  him  seek 
ing  a  place  to  settle.  Davenport  arrived  in  June, 
1637,  and  took  part  against  the  Antinomians  in 
the  synod.  After  examining  every  place  offered 
them  in  Massachusetts,  he  and  his  friends  refused 
all  and  resolved  to  plant  a  new  colony.  The  peo 
ple  were  Londoners  and  bent  on  trade,  and  Massa 
chusetts  had  no  suitable  place  for  their  settlement 
left.  The  bitterness  of  the  Hutchinson  contro 
versy  may  have  had  influence  in  bringing  them  to 
this  decision,  and  the  preparations  of  Laud  to  sub 
ject  and  control  Massachusetts  perhaps  had  weight 
in  driving  them  to  seek  a  remoter  settlement. 
Davenport  had  ideals  of  his  own,  and  the  earthly 
paradise  he  sought  to  found  was  not  quite  Cotton's 
nor  was  it  Hooker's.  He  and  his  followers  planted 
the  New  Haven  colony  in  1638.  In  this  little  colo 
ny  church  and  state  were  more  completely  blended 
than  in  Massachusetts.  The  government  was  by 
church  members  only,  to  the  discontent  of  other 
residents,  and  in  1644  New  Haven  adopted  the 
laws  of  Moses  in  all  their  rigor.  The  colony  was 
united  with  Connecticut  by  royal  charter  at  the 
Restoration,  after  which  the  saints  no  longer  sat 
upon  thrones  judging  the  tribes  of  Israel. 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


CONCLUSION. 

The  emigration  to  New  England  from  the 
mother  country  was  quickened  by  the  troubles 
that  preceded  the  civil  war.  In  1638  it  reached 
its  greatest  height,  having  been  augmented  per 
haps  by  agricultural  distress.  Fourteen  ships 
bound  for  New  England  lay  in  the  Thames  at  one 
time  in  the  spring  of  that  year.  There  was  alarm 
at  the  great  quantity  of  corn  required  for  the 
emigrants,  lest  there  should  not  be  enough  left 
in  London  to  last  till  harvest.  "  Divers  clothiers 
of  great  trading "  resolved  to  "  go  suddenly,"  in 
which  we  may  see,  perhaps,  evidence  of  bad  times 
in  the  commercial  world.  Some  parishes  it  was 
thought  would  be  impoverished.  Laud  was  asked 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  migration  ;  but  the  archbishop 
was  busy  trying  to  compel  the  Scots  to  use  the 
prayer  book.  Most  of  the  lords  of  the  Council 
were  favorable  to  New  England  ;  the  customs  offi 
cers  purposely  neglected  to  search  for  contraband 
goods,  and  the  ships,  twenty  in  all,  got  away  with 
or  without  license,  and  brought  three  thousand 
passengers  to  Boston.  But  the  tide  spent  itself 
about  this  time,  and  by  1640  emigration  to  the 
New  England  colonies  had  entirely  ceased.  About 
twenty-one  thousand  two  hundred  people  had  been 
landed  in  all. 

The  swing  of  the  political  pendulum  in  England 
that  served  to  check  the  Puritan  exodus  gave  im 
petus  to  a  new  emigration  to  Virginia  and  Mary- 


New  England  Dispersions. 


345 


land.  During  the  ten  years  and  more  before  1640 
few  had  gone  to  that  region  but  bond  servants. 
There  were  in  that  year  not  quite  eight  thousand 
people  in  Virginia.  It  is  the  point  of  time  at  which 
the  native  Virginians  began  to  rear  a  second  gen 
eration  born  on  the  soil.  The  waning  fortunes  of 
the  king  sent  to  the  colony  in  the  following  years 
a  large  cavalier  emigration,  and  the  average  char 
acter  of  the  colonists  was  raised.  Better  ministers 
held  the  Virginia  parishes  and  better  order  was 
observed  in  the  courts.  In  1648  four  hundred 
emigrants  lay  aboard  ships  bound  for  Virginia  at 
one  time,  and  in  1651  sixteen  hundred  royalist  pris 
oners  seem  to  have  been  sent  in  one  detachment. 

By  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
English  on  the  North  American  continent  were  in 
a  fair  way  to  predominate  all  other  Europeans. 
From  the  rather  lawless  little  fishing  villages  on 
the  coast  of  Maine  to  the  rigorous  Puritan  com 
munes  of  the  New  Haven  colony  that  stretched 
westward  to  pre-empt,  in  advance  of  the  Dutch, 
land  on  the  shores  of  Long  Island  Sound,  the  Eng 
lish  held  New  England.  English  settlers  "  seeking 
larger  accommodations"  had  crossed  to  Long  Is 
land  and  were  even  pushing  into  the  Dutch  colony. 
The  whole  Chesapeake  region  was  securely  Eng 
lish.  Already  there  were  Virginians  about  to 
break  into  the  Carolina  country  lying  wild  between 
Virginia  and  the  Spanish  colony  in  Florida.  The 
French  and  the  Dutch  and  the  Spaniards  excelled 
the  English  in  far-reaching  explorations  and  adven- 


346 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


turous  fur-trading.  But  the  English  had  proved 
their  superior  aptitude  for  planting  compact  agri 
cultural  communities.  A  sedentary  and  farming 
population  where  the  supply  of  land  is  not  limited 
reaches  the  highest  rate  of  natural  increase.  At  a 
later  time,  Franklin  estimated  that  the  population 
of  the  colonies  doubled  every  twenty-five  years 
without  including  immigrants.  The  compactness 
of  English  settlement  and  the  prolific  increase  of 
English  people  decided  the  fate  of  North  America. 
The  rather  thin  shell  of  Dutch  occupation  was  al 
ready,  by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
feeling  the  pressure  under  stress  of  which  it  was 
soon  to  give  way.  A  century  later  collision  with 
the  populous  and  ever-multiplying  English  settle 
ments  brought  about  the  collapse  of  the  expanded 
bubble  of  New  France. 

ELUCIDATIONS. 

There  is  a  paper  on  this  debate  in  the  British  Record  Office 
indorsed  by  Archbishop  Laud,  "  Rec  :  Octob  :  7.  1637,"  "  Propo 
sitions  wch  have  devided  Mr.  Hooker  &  Mr.  Cotton  in  Newe 
England,  i.  That  a  man  may  prove  his  justification  by  his  works 
of  sanctification,  as  the  first,  best,  and  only  cheife  evidence  of  his 
salvation.  2.  Whither  fayth  be  active  or  passive  in  justification. 
3.  Whither  there  be  any  saving  preparation  in  a  Christian  soule 
before  his  unyon  with  Christ.  This  latter  is  only  Hooker's  opin 
ion,  the  rest  of  the  ministers  do  not  concurr  with  him  :  Cotton  and 
the  rest  of  the  contrary  opinion  are  against  him  and  his  party  in 
all."  Colonial  Papers,  ix,  71.  In  the  next  paper  in  the  same 
volume,  also  indorsed  by  Laud,  the  controversy  is  more  fully  set 
forth.  Copies  of  both  are  in  the  Bancroft  collection  of  the  New 
York  Public  Library,  Laud  indorsed  these  papers  respectively 
October  7  and  15,  1637.  The  Cambridge  Synod,  which  met  Au 
gust  3oth,  had  adjourned  late  in  September,  and  the  debates 


New  England  Dispersions. 


which  divided  the  two  divines  must  have  preceded  it,  and  perhaps 
preceded  the  migration  of  Hooker  to  Connecticut  in  1636.  When 
Haynes  was  Governor  of  Massachusetts  he  had  pronounced  the 
sentence  of  banishment  against  Williams.  But  some  years  later, 
while  Governor  of  Connecticut,  he  relented  a  little  and  wrote  to 
Williams :  "  I  think,  Mr.  Williams,  I  must  now  confesse  to  you, 
that  the  most  wise  God  hath  provided  and  cut  out  this  part  of 
his  world  for  a  refuge  and  receptacle  for  all  sorts  of  consciences. 
I  am  now  under  a  cloud,  and  my  brother  Hooker,  with  the  bay,  as 
you  have  been,  we  have  removed  from  them  thus  far,  and  yet  they 
are  not  satisfied."  Quoted  by  Williams  in  a  letter  to  Mason,  ist 
Massachusetts  Historical  Collections,  i,  280. 

The  abstract  of  Hooker's  sermon  of  May  31,  1638,  as  de 
ciphered  and  published  by  Dr.  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  is  in  the 
Collections  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society,  i,  20,  21,  and 
the  Fundamental  Laws  of  1639  are  m  Hinman's  Antiquities,  20, 
and  ff.,  and  in  Trumbull's  Blue  Laws,  51.  Compare  also  the 
remarkable  letter  of  Hooker  to  Winthrop  in  Connecticut  His 
torical  Society  Collections,  i,  3-15.  Hooker  objects  strongly 
to  the  right  of  arbitrary  decisions  by  the  magistrate :  "  I  must 
confess,  I  ever  looked  at  it  as  a  way  which  leads  directly  to 
tyranny,  and  so  to  confusion,  and  must  plainly  profess,  if  it  was 
in  my  liberty,  I  would  choose  neither  to  live  nor  leave  my  poster 
ity  under  such  government."  This  letter  exhibits  Hooker's  in 
tellect  to  great  advantage.  One  is  inclined  to  rank  him  above 
most  of  his  New  England  contemporaries  in  clearness  and  breadth 
of  thought. 

The  selling  of  half-developed  homesteads  to  newcomers  by 
older  settlers  was  of  constant  occurrence  in  all  the  colonies  dur 
ing  the  colonial  period.  It  was  a  notable  practice  on  the  frontiers 
of  Pennsylvania  down  to  the  Revolution,  and  perhaps  later.  Hub- 
bard  thus  describes  what  went  on  in  every  New  England  settle 
ment  :  "  Thus  the  first  planters  in  every  township,  having  the 
advantage  of  the  first  discovery  of  places,  removed  themselves 
into  new  dwellings,  thereby  making  room  for  others  to  succeed 
them  in  their  old."  General  History  of  New  England,  155. 

The  existence  in  England  of  a  doctrine  resembling  that  of  the 
followers  of  Cotton  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  is  implied  in  Welde's 
preface  to  the  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign,  and  Ruine  of  An- 
tinomianism.  "  And  this  is  the  very  reason  that  this  kind  of  doc- 


348 


Centrifugal  Forces  in  Colony-Planting. 


trine  takes  so  well  here  in  London  and  other  parts  of  the  king- 
dome,  and  that  you  see  so  many  dance  after  this  pipe,  running 
after  such  and  such,  crowding  the  Churches  and  filling  the 
doores  and  windowes." 

Giles  Firmin's  Review  of  Davis's  Vindication,  1693,  quotes 
from  a  letter  of  Shepard  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts  :  "  Preach 
Humiliation,  labor  to  possess  Men  with  a  Sence  of  Misery  and 
wrath  to  come.  The  Gospel  Consolations  and  Grace  which 
some  would  have  only  disht  out  as  the  Dainties  of  the  times  and 
set  upon  the  Ministry's  Table  may  possibly  tickle  and  ravish 
some  and  do  some  good  to  some  which  are  Humbled  and  Con 
verted  already.  But  if  Axes  and  Wedges  be  not  used  withal  to 
hew  and  break  this  rough  unhewn  bold  but  professing  age,  I  am 
Confident  the  Work  and  Fruit  .  .  .  will  be  but  meer  Hypocrisie." 

Notwithstanding  his  early  imprudence  during  the  partisan  ex 
citement  in  Boston,  Whelewright  was  a  man  of  sound  judgment, 
and  his  testimony  regarding  his  sister-in-law  is  the  most  impor 
tant  we  have.  "  She  was  a  woman  of  good  wit  and  not  onely 
so,  ...  but  naturally  of  a  good  judgment  too,  as  appeared  in  her 
civill  occasions ;  In  spirituals  indeed  she  gave  her  understanding 
over  into  the  power  of  suggestion  and  immediate  dictates,  by 
reason  of  which  she  had  many  strange  fancies,  and  erroneous 
tenents  possest  her,  especially  during  her  confinement  ...  at 
tended  by  melancholy."  Mercurius  Americanus,  p.  7. 

Hugh  Peter,  after  his  return  to  England,  adopted  the  views 
in  favor  of  toleration  beginning  to  prevail  there.  Nine  years 
after  he  had  obtruded  himself  so  eagerly  to  testify  against  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  he  was  writing  to  New  England  earnest  remon 
strances  against  persecution.  4  Massachusetts  Historical  Collec 
tions,  vi,  where  the  letters  are  given. 

There  were  those  who  wished  to  give  time  for  a  second  ad 
monition  before  excommunication,  but  they  were  overruled,  prob 
ably  by  Wilson.  Winthrop,  i,  310.  It  would,  perhaps,  have 
been  in  better  form  to  take  the  other  and  less  eager  course. 
There  is  a  Latin  paper  in  the  British  Public  Record  Office,  dated 
3  March,  1635,  which  professes  to  give  a  brief  and  orderly  digest 
of  the  canons  of  government  constituted  and  observed  in  the  re 
formed  New  England  churches.  I  am  unable  to  trace  its  au 
thority.  From  this  I  quote  ;  "  Qui  pertinacitur  consistorii  admo- 
nitiones  rejecerit  a  ccena  domini  suspendatur.  Si  suspensus,  post 


New  England  Dispersions. 


349 


iteratus   admonitiones  nulla  poenitentias  signum  dederit  ad  ex- 
comunicationem  procedat  Ecclesia." 

It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  controvert  the  ingenious  apolo 
gies  which  have  been  written  to  prove  that  an  inexorable  necessity 
compelled  the  banishment  of  the  Antinomians.  The  Massachu 
setts  government  was  in  its  very  nature  and  theory  opposed  to 
religious  toleration,  as  we  may  see  by  the  reference  of  the  case  of 
Gorton  and  his  companions  to  the  elders,  and  their  verdict  that 
these  men,  not  residents  of  the  jurisdiction,  ought  to  be  put  to 
death  for  constructive  blasphemy,  a  decision  that  the  magis 
trates  by  a  majority  vote  would  have  put  in  execution  if  the 
"  deputies  "  or  representative  members  of  the  assembly  had  not 
dissented.  Savage's  Winthrop's  Journal,  ii,  177.  The  doctrine 
of  intolerance  is  ingeniously  set  forth  in  Cotton's  "The  Powring 
Ovt  of  the  Seven  Vials,  .  .  .  very  fit  and  necessary  for  this  Pres 
ent  Age,"  published  in  1642.  Cotton  compares  Jesuits  and  here 
tics  to  wolves,  and  says,  "  Is  it  not  an  acceptable  service  to  the 
whole  Country  to  cut  off  the  ravening  Wolves  ?  "  The  Puritans 
of  New  England  from  their  very  circumstances  were  slower  to 
accept  the  doctrine  of  religious  liberty  than  their  coreligionists  in 
England. 


CHAP.  III. 


Note  9, 
page  341. 


INDEX. 


Abbot,  Abp.,  on  Calvert's  resignation, 
259,  n.  6. 

Abercromby's  Examination,  258,  n.  4  ; 
262,  n.  ii  ;  263,  n.  12. 

Aberdeen  Burgh  Records,  no  Sabba 
tarian  legislation  in,  140,  n.  12  ; 
quaint  ordinance  from,  140,  n.  12. 

Accidents,  New  England  hung  on  a 
chain  of  slender,  176. 

Act,  for  Church  Liberties,  1639,  251  ; 
265,  n.  22  ;  for  discovering  popish 
recusants,  237,  m.  ;  of  Toleration, 
1649,  255,  256 ;  act  to  prevent,  etc., 
237,  m. 

Activity,  intellectual,  men  excited  to 
unwonted,  I. 

Adam's  needle  and  thread,  garments 
woven  of  fiber  of,  79  ;  efforts  to 
cultivate,  80. 

Admonition  to  the  People  of  Eng 
land,  115,  m. 

Advertisements  for  Planters  of  New 
England,  27,  m. 

Age  of  romance  and  adventure,  an, 
I,  2O  ;  of  colony  beginnings,  92  ; 
dramatic  and  poetic  to  its  core, 
100. 

Agrarian  and  industrial  disturbance 
aids  the  Puritan  movement,  in. 

Ainsworth  wrote  tractate  on  the  Jew 
ish  ephod,  108. 

Alexander,  William,  Encouragement 
to  Colonies,  258,  n.  3. 

Alleghanies  deemed  almost  impass 
able,  ii. 

Almond,  an,  for  a  Parrat,  116. 

America  excited  the  most  lively  curi 
osity,  2  ;  notion  that  it  was  an  Asi 
atic  peninsula,  3;  search  for  a  route 
through,  lasted  one  hundred  and 
fourteen  years,  8;  a  Mediterranean 
Sea  sought  in  the  heart  of,  ii;  fact 
and  fable  about,  14  ;  excepted  from 
the  Deluge,  20  ;  treasure  from  flow 
ing  into  Spanish  coffers,  74 ;  Hak- 


luyt  spreading  sails  for,  in  every 
breeze,  76 ;  all  one  to  European 
eyes,  169. 

Amer.  Antiqu.  Soc.  Trans,  22,  n.  4. 

Amsterdam,  Separatists  migrated  to, 
148  ;  called  a  common  harbor  of 
all  opinions,  164. 

Anabaptism,  divergencies  in  direction 
of,  in  Mass.,  267. 

Anarchy  and  despotism  the  inevitable 
alternatives  of  communism,  26. 

Anderson's  Church  of  England  in  the 
Colonies,  258,  n.  3. 

Anderson's  Commerce,  22,  n.  5  ;  75, 
m. ;  76,  m. ;  95,  n.  3. 

Anglican  and  Puritan  party  lines  not 
sharply  drawn  at  first,  no. 

Anglican  Church  party,  leaders  at 
Zurich  and  Strasburg,  104 ;  held 
to  the  antique  ritual,  106  ;  content 
with  moderate  reforms,  109  ;  must 
have  a  stately  liturgy  and  holy  days, 
no  ;  becomes  dogmatic,  113  ;  aided 
by  Hooker's  Ecclesiastical  Polity, 

122. 

Anglican  zeal  founded  a  nation  of 
dissenters,  91. 

Animals,  notions  about  American, 
1 8  ;  too  many  kinds  for  Noah's 
ark,  20. 

Animals  for  breeding,  stock  of,  48  ; 
sold  by  Argall,  50. 

Antinomianism,  divergencies  in  di 
rection  of,  in  Mass.,  287  ;  found  by 
Winthrop  in  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
teachings,  332. 

Antinomians  sheltered  by  Vane  and 
Cotton,  267  ;  Davenport  took  part 
against,  in  the  synod,  343  ;  banish 
ment  of  the,  349,  n.  9.  See  also 
HUTCHINSON,  MRS.  ANNE,  and 

HUTCHINSONIAN    CONTROVERSY. 

Antwerp,  a  place    of  refuge    for   the 

persecuted,  312,  n.  18. 
Apocalypse    of   John,    the,   received 


351 


352 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


hearty  consideration  from  the  New 
England  Puritans,  301. 

Apostolic  primitivism,  aim  of  the 
Puritan,  303  ;  goal  of  the  Separa 
tist,  303. 

Apostolic  succession  asserted  as  essen 
tial,  113. 

Archdale's  Carolina,  171,  m. 

Archer,  Gabriel,  wounded  by  the  In 
dians,  28  ;  hostile  to  Smith,  37  ; 
character  of,  64,  n.  3  ;  a  ringleader 
in  disorders,  63,  n.  3  ;  a  paper  on 
Virginia  by,  96,  n.  7. 

Archery  on  Sunday  prohibited,  127. 

Arctic  continent,  an,  2. 

Argall,  Captain,  the  first  Englishman 
to  see  the  bison,  24,  n.  10,  50  ;  sent 
to  the  Bermudas,  went  to  the  fish 
ing-banks  for  food,  42  ;  to  Mt. 
Desert  for  plunder,  47  ;  bad  record 
and  government,  50  ;  robbed  Com 
pany  and  colonists,  50,  52  ;  fitted 
out  a  ship  for  piracy,  51  ;  charter 
procured  for  a  new  plantation  to 
protect,  51,  68,  n.  13  ;  escaped  in 
nick  of  time,  52. 

Argonauts  of  the  New  World  set  sail, 

25- 

Arianism,  divergencies  in  direction 
of,  in  Massachusetts,  267. 

Ark,  The,  and  The  Dove,  efforts  to 
prevent  departure  of,  241  ;  no  Prot 
estant  minister  or  worship  on  board, 
242. 

Armada,  the  Spanish,  patriotism 
aroused  by  the  danger  from,  121. 

Armenian  silk-raisers  brought  to  Vir 
ginia,  78. 

Arminian  Nunnery,  93,  m. 

Arminianism  spreads  among  the  High- 
Church  clergy,  133,  192. 

Arminians  and  Calvinists,  Laud  at 
tempts  to  suppress  debate  between, 
194. 

Arminians  excluded  from  toleration 
in  the  Netherlands,  298,  312,  n.  18. 

Arnold's  History  of  Rhode  Island, 
3ii,  n.  17. 

Articles  of  Union,  the,  provided  for 
freedom  of  private  belief,  312,  n.  18. 

Arundel,  Lord,  a  friend  of  Sir  George 
Calvert,  226 ;  territory  assigned  to, 
259,  n.  5. 

Asher's  History  of  West  India  Com 
pany,  177,  m. 

Asia,  efforts  to  reach,  3. 


Aspinwall  Papers,  56,  m.  ;  70,  n.  15  ; 

264,  n.  20. 

Aubrey's  Survey  of  Wiltshire,  136,  n.  5. 

Augustine  on  the  Sunday-Sabbath, 
137,  n.  8  ;  140,  n.  13. 

Austerfeld,  a  cradle  of  the  Pilgrims, 
149  ;  the  stolid  rustics  of,  150 ;  the 
font  at  which  Bradford  was  bap 
tized,  151  ;  inhabitants  at  Brad 
ford's  birth  a  most  ignorant  people, 
152. 

Austerity  in  morals  a  Puritan  charac 
teristic,  119. 

Auxiliary  societies  formed,  53. 

Avalon,  Calvert's  province  in  New 
foundland  called,  224,  258,  n.  3  ; 
charter  of,  225,  234  ;  primary  de 
sign  of  the  colony,  225  ;  259,  n.  5  ; 
troubles  of  Baltimores  and  Puritans 
in,  228  ;  abandoned  by  Calvert,  230 ; 
Catholic  emigrants  to,  239. 

Bacon,  Lord,  objects  to  heretics  set 
tling  a  colony,  171. 

Bacon's  Lord,  An  Advertisement 
touching  Controversies,  117,  m.  ; 
Advice  to  Villiers,  171,  m. ;  Certain 
Considerations,  162,  m.  ;  Essay  on 
Plantations,  27,  m. ;  Observation  on 
a  Libel,  163,  m. ;  Speech  in  reply 
to  the  Speaker,  25,  m. 

Bacon's  Laws  of  Maryland,  264,  n.  19  ; 

265,  n.  22. 

Bacon,  Nathaniel,  60,  n.  I. 

Bacon,  Roger,  on  the  Sunday  ques 
tion,  138,  n.  8. 

Baillie,  Robert,  on  John  Robinson, 
156. 

Baltimore,  first  Baron.  See  CALVERT, 
GEORGE. 

Baltimore,  Letters  to  Wentworth, 
241,  m. 

Baltimore,  second  Baron.  See  CAL 
VERT,  CECILIUS. 

Bancroft,  Richard,  Bishop  of  London, 
theatrical  adulation  of  King  James, 
161 ;  as  primate  persecutes  the 
Puritans,  162  ;  stops  emigration  to 
Virginia,  168,  183,  n.  2. 

Baptist  Church,  the  General,  on 
earthly  and  spiritual  authority,  312, 
n.  19. 

Baptists,  Williams  and  his  followers 
become,  303. 

Barclay's  Inner  Life,  146,  m.  ;  186,  n. 
6  ;  312,  n.  19  :  314,  n.  24. 


Index. 


353 


Barlow's  Svmme  and  Svbslance,  143, 
m.  ;  160,  m.  ;  162,  m. ;  182,  n.  i. 

Barrow  hanged  at  Tyburn,  148. 

Barrowism  a  mean  between  Presby- 
terianism  and  Brownism,  148  ;  the 
model  for  the  church  at  Scrooby, 

154- 
Bawtry,  the  station  near  Scrooby,  149, 

150,  151. 

Baylie,  Robert,  condemns  the  tolera 
tion  of  the  Dutch,  164,  311,  n.  18. 

Baylie's  Errours  and  Induration,  164, 
m. ;  311,  n.  18. 

Bell,  ringing  of  only  one,  to  call  peo 
ple  to  church,  129;  of  more  than 
one  a  sin,  130. 

Bentley's  Description  of  Salem,  200, 
m.  ;  Historical  Account  of  Salem, 
3",  n.  17. 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  persecution  of 
Puritans  in  Virginia  by,  252. 

Bermudas,  Gates  and  Somers  ship 
wrecked  on  the,  40  ;  birds  and  wild 
hogs  at  the,  41,  65,  n.  6  ;  marvelous 
escape  from  the,  41,  65,  n.  6. 

Beste,  George,  2,  m.  ;  4  ;  on  the  New 
World,  21,  n.  2. 

Biard  on  Dale's  severity  to  French 
prisoners,  66,  n.  9. 

Bible,  reading  the,  as  part  of  the  serv 
ice,  reprehended  by  the  extremists, 
117. 

Birch's  Court  of  James  I,  68,  n.  10  ; 
69,  n.  14;  72,  n.  19  ;  258,  n.  i. 

Bishoprics  filled  by  Elizabeth,  143. 

Bishops,  effect  of  the  hostility  of  the, 
to  the  Puritans,  112  ;  attacked  by 
the  Mar-Prelate  tracts,  115  ;  reac 
tion  in  favor  of,  121  ;  had  become 
Protestant  to  mo^t  people,  123. 

Bison  found  near  the  Potomac,  50. 

Blackstone,  William,  first  settler  at 
Boston,  190. 

Blake's  Annals  of  Dorchester,  219, 
n.  9. 

Boston  chosen  as  fittest  place  for  pub 
lic  meetings,  319  ;  secured  Cotton 
to  balance  Newton's  Hooker,  319. 

Boston  church,  Roger  Williams  re 
fused  to  become  a  minister  of,  270. 

Boston  Town  Records,  329,  m. 

Boulton,  a  Separatist,  recanted  and 
hung  himself,  157,  n.  2. 

Bowling  in  the  streets  the  daily  work 
at  Jamestown,  44. 

Bowls,  Calvin  playing  at,  on  Sunday, 

24 


124  ;  Mar-Prelate  berates  the  Bishop 
of  London  for  playing,  128. 

Bownd's,  Dr.,  Sabbath  of  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament,  124,  128  ; 
views  rapidly  accepted,  129  ;  ultra- 
propositions  exceeded,  130  ;  capti 
vated  the  religious  public,  130  ;  op 
position  to,  131  ;  new  edition  pub 
lished,  132,  139,  n.  10. 

Bozman,  265,  n.  22. 

Bradford,  William,  a  silk-weaver  in 
Leyden,  169 ;  chosen  governor  at 
Plymouth,  179  ;  abolishes  commu 
nism,  180 ;  of  high  aspiration  re 
strained  by  practical  wisdom,  306. 

Bradford's  Dialogue  of  1593,  146,  m.  ; 
Plimoth  Plantation,  145,  m.  ;  153, 
m. ;  154,  m.  ;  155,  m. ;  158,  n.  3  ;  165, 
m.  ;  1 66,  m.  ;  175,  m. ;  184,  n.  4  ;  186, 
n  9  ;  274,  m. 

Brewster,  William,  at  court,  152  ; 
master  of  the  post  at  Scrooby,  153  ; 
secured  ministers  for  neighboring 
parishes  who  were  silenced,  153  ; 
the  host  and  ruling  elder  of  the 
Scrooby  church,  154  ;  useful  career 
of,  155  ;  project  of  forming  a  new 
state,  167  ;  books  owned  by,  168. 

Briefe  Declaration,  MS.,  27,  m.  ;  40, 
m. ;  43,  m. ;  44,  m. ;  45,  m. ;  46,  m. ; 
47,  m. ;  66,  n.  9. 

Brieff  Discourse  of  the  Troubles  be 
gun  at  Frankfort,  135,  n.  3. 

Briggs,  Henry,  on  the  nearness  of  the 
Pacific,  10,  22,  n.  6. 

Bristol  colony  in  Newfoundland,  258, 
n.  3. 

British  Museum,  MS.,  42,  m. ;  44,  m. 

Broughton  wrote  a  tractate  on  the 
Jewish  ephod,  108. 

Brown,  Richard,  submitted  to  remon 
strance,  290. 

Browne,  John  and  Samuel,  sent  back 
to  England  by  Endecott,  200. 

Browne,  Robert,  leader  of  the  Sepa 
ratists,  145  \  despised  for  recanting, 
died  in  prison,  146  ;  career  lasted 
only  four  or  five  years,  147  ;  John 
Robinson's  justification  of,  157,  n.  i ; 
authorities  on,  157,  n.  I  ;  158,  n.  2. 

Brownists.     See  SEPARATISTS. 

Brown's  Genesis  of  the  United  States, 

94,  n.  i  ;  183,  n.  3. 

Bruce's  Economic  History  of  Virginia, 

95,  n.  3- 

Buckingham  dominant  at  court,  193  ; 


354 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


consents  to  sale  of  Calvert's  secre 
taryship,  227. 

Bull  and  bear  baiting  on  Sunday,  129. 
Bullein's  Dialogue  against  the  Fever 

Pestilence,  23,  n.  8  ;  126. 
Burgesses,  House  of,  in  Virginia,  55. 
Burk's  History  of  Virginia,  69,  n.  13. 
Burleigh,  Lord  Treasurer,  treatise  on 

Execution   of  Justice  in    England 

published  by,  238. 
Burns's  Prel.  Diss.  to  Woodrow,  159, 

m. ;  160,  m. 
Busher,  Leonard,  petitioned  James  I 

for  liberty  of  conscience,  312,  n.  19. 

Cabins  at  Jamestown,  29. 

Cabot,  John,  discovers  America,  3  ; 
his  ships  retarded  by  codfish,  18  ; 
Deane's  voyages  of,  21,  n.  I  ;  Har- 
risse  on,  21,  n.  I. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  not  a  discoverer,  21, 
n.  i  ;  a  doubtful  authority,  24,  n.  9. 

Calendar  of  Colonial  Documents,  70, 
n.  15  ;  96,  n.  5  ;  259,  n.  5. 

Calendar  of  Domestic  Papers,  259, 
n.  6. 

Calendar  of  Domestic  State  Papers 
James  I,  77,  m. 

Calendar  of  State  Papers  America, 
224,  m. 

Caliban  suggested  by  popular  interest 
in  savages,  17. 

Calvert,  Cecilius,  second  Lord  Balti 
more,  son  of  George  Calvert,  234  ; 
expected  large  Catholic  migration, 
240  ;  religious  aim  of,  240  ;  part 
ners  in  financial  risks,  240,  263,  n. 
13  ;  policy  of  toleration,  242  ;  or 
ders  the  Catholic  service  to  be  con 
ducted  privately  on  shipboard,  242  ; 
a  conservative  opportunist,  243  ; 
supported  at  court  by  Strafford,  249 ; 
schemes  against  Virginia,  249,  264, 
n.  21  ;  seeks  to  be  governor,  250  ; 
offer  to  New  England  people,  252  ; 
had  Maryland  oath  of  fidelity  modi 
fied  for  Puritans,  253  ;  yielded  office 
of  governor  to  Protestant,  254 ; 
again  master  of  Maryland,  257. 

Calvert,  George,  character  of,  221  ; 
his  rise  in  power,  223  ;  denied  be 
ing  bribed  by  Spain,  223,  258,  n.  i  ; 
member  of  Virginia  Company,  1609, 
224,  229;  councilor  for  New  Eng 
land,  224 ;  establishes  colony  in 
Newfoundland,  224,  239  ;  his  con 


version  to  Catholicism,  226 ;  intract 
able,  225  ;  resigned  secretaryship 
and  made  Baron  Baltimore,  228, 
259,  n.  6  ;  in  Newfoundland,  228, 
229  ;  sails  to  Virginia,  229  ;  not  re 
ceived  hospitably,  230  ;  refuses  to 
take  oath  of  supremacy,  and  leaves 
Virginia,  232;  religious  enthusiasm, 
233>  258,  n.  3  ;  passion  for  planting 
colonies,  233  ;  death  of,  233. 

Calvert  Papers,  250,  m.  ;  264,  n.  17. 

Calvin,  John,  the  dominant  influence 
at  Geneva,  104  ;  on  the  Sabbath, 
124  ;  Cotton  a  follower  of,  329. 

Calvinism,  materials  for  subjective 
joys  provided  by,  327. 

Calvinistic  churches,  efforts  to  as 
similate  the  Church  of  England  to 
the,  112  ;  controversy  adds  another 
issue,  133  ;  doctrines  popular,  328, 
329,  347,  n.  4. 

Calvinists  and  Arminians,  Laud's  at 
tempt  to  suppress  debates  between, 
194. 

Cambridge  settled  under  the  name  of 
Newtown,  317. 

Cambridge  pledge,  the,  of  Winthrop 
and  others,  209. 

Camden's  Elements  of  New  England, 
177,  m. 

Canada,  Brownists  ask  leave  to  settle 
in,  167. 

Cannibalism  at  Jamestown,  39  ;  de 
nied  by  Gates,  65,  n.  5. 

Cape  Anne,  failure  of  Dorchester 
Company's  colony  on,  189,  199. 

Cape  Cod  shoals  turn  back  the  May 
flower,  177,  186,  n.  7. 

Carlisle's  treatise,  75,  m. 

Cartwright,  leader  of  the  Presbyte 
rians,  112,  136,  n.  6. 

Cartwright's  Admonition  to  Parlia 
ment,  129,  m. 

Carver,  John,  chosen  governor,  173, 
184,  n.  4. 

Castle  Island,  platform  constructed 
on,  284. 

Catholic  conscience,  oath  made  of 
fensive  to  the,  237. 

Catholic  migration,  the,  220 ;  revival 
in  England,  226  ;  settlers  in  New 
foundland,  228,  239  ;  Baltimore 
family  openly,  228,  235  ;  migration 
to  Maryland  small,  240  ;  pilgrims 
very  religious,  243,  244,  245  ;  tax 
on  Catholic  servants  in  Maryland, 


Index. 


355 


248  ;  colony  in  Maryland  until  after 
1640,  247 ;  at  peace  with  Puritans  in 
Maryland,  254  ;  element  protected 
in  Maryland,  257  ;  party  in  minor 
ity  in  Maryland,  266. 

Catholicism  condoned,  to  conciliate 
Spain,  238  ;  tide  toward,  in  Eng 
land,  240. 

Catholics,  Irish,  not  allowed  to  settle 
in  Virginia,  231;  Baltimore's  party 
of,  repelled  from  Virginia,  231  ; 
harsh  laws  in  England  against,  236, 
237.  238  ;  enforcement  of  penal  stat 
utes  against,  239  ;  co-religionists  of 
queen,  239  ;  toleration  and  protec 
tion  to  English  Catholics  in  Mary 
land,  242 ;  no  perfect  security  for, 
in  Maryland,  248  ;  rich  and  influ 
ential  families  of,  in  Maryland,  264, 
n.  18  ;  conciliation  to  Protestants 
at  expense  of  fairness  toward,  251  ; 
papist  religion  forbidden,  257  ;  ex 
cluded  from  toleration  in  the  Neth 
erlands,  298,  312,  n.  18. 

Catlet,  Colonel,  reaches  the  Allegha- 
nies,  ii. 

Cattle,  scarce  in  Massachusetts  col 
ony,  320  ;  perished  in  Connecticut, 
324- 

Cavalier  emigration  to  Virginia,  345. 

Cedar  timber  exported,  45. 

Ceremonies,  observance  of  pompous, 
101  ;  bitter  debates  about,  108 ; 
ceased  to  be  abhorrent,  123. 

Certayne  Qvestions  concerning  the 
high  priest's  ephod,  108,  m. 

Chapman,  Jonson  and  Marston's  East 
ward,  Ho  !  23,  n.  8. 

Charles  I,  coronation  robe  of  silk 
for,  from  Virginia,  78  ;  obliterated 
by  Puritanism,  133. 

Charles  II  wore  silk  raised  in  Vir 
ginia,  78. 

Charter,  the  Great,  granted  by  the 
Virginia  Company,  55,  173,  206  ; 
only  information  concerning,  70,  n. 
15- 

Charter  for  a  private  plantation  ob 
tained  by  Warwick,  51,  68,  n.  13. 

Charter  of  New  England,  1620,  173  ; 
of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  210, 
218,  n.  7;  of  Avalon,  April  7,  1623, 
225  ;  for  precinct  in  Virginia  grant 
ed  to  Leyden  pilgrims,  229 ;  for 
new  palatinate  on  north  side  of  the 
Potomac  granted  to  Baltimore,  233  ; 


of  Maryland  passed,  234  ;  terms  of 
the,  234,  235,  236  ;  compared  with 
those  of  Avalon,  234  ;  ambiguous, 
251. 

Charter-House  School  founded  by 
legacy  as  Sutton's  Hospital,  268 ; 
attended  by  Roger  Williams,  268. 

Chesapeake  Bay  mapped  by  Captain 
John  Smith,  36. 

Chesapeake  region  securely  English, 
345- 

Chimes  not  in  accord  with  a  severe 
Sabbath,  129. 

Church,  a  "  particular,"  Puritans  de 
sire  to  found,  197  ;  the  unit  of  New 
England  migration,  325. 

Church  at  Jamestown  enlarged,  42, 
65,  n.  7. 

Church  economy,  each  system  of, 
claimed  divine  authority,  113. 

Church,  English,  Laud  sought  to 
make  Catholic,  193. 

Church  government,  three  periods  of, 
112,  136,  n.  6;  questions  of,  fell 
into  abeyance,  137,  n.  6  ;  Barrow- 
ism,  the  form  of,  brought  to  New 
England,  148  ;  Puritans  desire  to 
make  real  their  ideal  of,  198  ;  Puri 
tan  passion  for,  212. 

Church  of  England  repudiated  as  anti- 
christian,  147  ;  divergencies  in  di 
rection  of,  in  Massachusetts,  267. 

Church  of  the  exiles  at  Frankfort, 
the  factions  in  developed  into  two 
great  parties,  105. 

Church  quarrels  at  Strasburg  and 
Frankfort,  105  ;  reform,  no  hope  of 
securing,  196,  197. 

Churches  of  Massachusetts  formed  on 
model  of  Robinson's  Independency, 
213  ;  lack  of  uniformity  In  the  ear 
ly,  215  ;  borrowed  discipline  and 
form  of  government  from  Plymouth, 
215- 

Churchill's  Voyages,  265,  n.  23. 

Churchmen,  High,  aggressive,  113. 

Cities  of  refuge  on  the  Continent,  104 ; 
English  churches  organized  in,  104. 

Civet  cat,  Hariot  thought,  would  prove 
profitable,  19. 

Claiborne,  claim  of,  to  Kent  Island, 
253- 

Clap's,  Roger,  Memoirs,  213,  m. 

Clarendon  Papers,  67,  n.  9. 

Clarke's  Gladstone  and  Maryland  Tol 
eration,  245,  m. 


356 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


Clergymen  most  active  writers  in 
favor  of  colonization,  91  ;  some 
preach  sermons  but  stay  away  from 
public  prayer,  143  ;  supported  by 
magistrates  in  Massachusetts  if 
church  order  was  disturbed,  266  ; 
men  of  unusual  prudence  in  ranks 
of,  266. 

Climate  of  Great  Britain  not  favorable 
to  raising  products  of  the  Mediter 
ranean,  75. 

Coddington's  Letter,  308,  n.  9. 

Code  of  Lawes,  Divine,  Morall,  and 
Martiall,  by  Sir  Thoinas  Smyth,  70, 
n.  16 ;  132. 

Codfish,  multitude  of,  on  coast  of 
Newfoundland,  18. 

Coxe,  Sir  Edward,  defended  legacy 
which  founded  Charter  -  House 
School,  268  ;  appointed  Roger  Wil 
liams  to  a  scholarship,  268  ;  schism 
detested  by,  270. 

College  proposed  and  endowed,  91. 

Collier's  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
Great  Britain,  263,  n.  12. 

Colonial  Constitution  of  Virginia 
modified  for  the  worse,  249. 

Colonial  Papers,  68,  n.  n  ;  71,  n.  18  ; 
262,  n.  ii  ;  264,  n.  21  ;  265,  n.  25  ; 
346,  n.  i. 

Colonial  proprietors,  70,  n.  15. 

Colonial  Records  of  Virginia,  70,  n. 

15-  . 

Colonies,  secondary,  220. 

Colonists,  efforts  of  friends  to  succor, 
thwarted,  47  ;  loss  of  life  among,  in 
Virginia,  58. 

Colonization,  English,  the  fate  of,  set 
tled  by  the  experiments  on  the 
James  River,  58  ;  promoted,  to  get 
rid  of  excess  of  population,  136,  n. 
5  ;  unwise  management  ruined 
many  projects  for,  178. 

Colony,  English,  rise  of  the  first,  i  ; 
motives  for  founding,  73. 

Colony  government,  primary  and  sec 
ondary  forms  of,  218,  n.  7. 

Colony  of  St.  Maries,  245. 

Colony-planters  drawn  from  the  ranks 
of  the  uneasy,  171,  220. 

Colony-planting,  Hakluyt's  tireless 
advocacy  of,  5  ;  John  Smith  on,  37 ; 
spurred  by  three  motives,  74  ;  kept 
alive  by  delusions,  74  ;  first  princi 
ples  of,  not  understood,  76  ;  an  eco 
nomic  problem,  84 ;  the  religious 


motive  most  successful  in,  189,  220  ; 
centrifugal  forces  in,  220,  266. 

Commandment,  the  fourth,  held  to  be 
partly  moral,  partly  ceremonial,  138, 
n.  8  ;  140,  n.  13  ;  Shepard  holds  it 
to  be  wholly  moral,  140,  n.  13. 

Commerce  with  the  Orient,  the  hope 
of,  retarded  settlement,  4. 

Commissions,  forged,  to  "press" 
maidens,  72,  n.  19. 

Commodities,  sixteen  staple,  exhibited 
from  Virginia,  49  ;  production  of, 
the  main  hope  of  wealth  for  Vir 
ginia,  75,  97,  n.  9. 

Commons  inclosed,  in,  135,  n.  5. 

Commons  Journal,  71,  n.  18. 

Communion,  withdrawal  of,  a  funda 
mental  principle  of  Separatism,  271. 

Communism  at  Jamestown,  26,  42 ; 
abolished,  56  ;  attempted  at  Plym 
outh,  169,  185,  n.  4  ;  abolished  by 
Bradford,  180  ;  evils  of,  186,  n.  9. 

Compact,  the,  of  the  Pilgrims,  173, 
183,  n.  4  ;  185,  n.  5. 

Company's  Chief  Root  of  Differences, 
the,  52,  m.  ;  authors  of,  69,  n.  13. 

Congregationalism,  rise  of,  in  New 
England,  214. 

Connecticut,  a  secondary  colony,  220  ; 
the  migration  to,  has  an  epic  inter 
est,  316 ;  independent  constitution 
adopted  by,  325  ;  accounts  adverse 
to,  circulated  in  England,  326. 

Connecticut  Historical  Society  Col 
lections,  326,  m  ;  347,  n.  2. 

Connecticut  River,  stories  of  the  fer 
tility  of  the  intervale  land  on  the, 

322  ;    dangerous    Pequots   on    the, 

323  ;     soil    did    not    need    to    be 
"fished,"  324. 

Consciences,  oppressed,  places  of  ref 
uge  for,  in  the  Low  Countries,  163. 

Conservative  and  radical,  difference 
between  constitutional,  109;  church 
man  limited  his  Protestantism, 
109. 

Constitutional  government,  starting 
point  of,  in  the  New  World,  55. 

Continent,  an  arctic  and  antarctic,  2  ; 
crossed  by  Ingram  in  a  year,  14. 

Controversie  concerning  Liberty  of 
Conscience,  300,  m. 

Conversion  of  the  Indians,  desired 
for  the  sake  of  trade,  16,  90,  216, 
n.  4  ;  orders  for  the,  42  ;  interest 
in,  becomes  secondary,  204,  209  ; 


Index. 


357 


authorities  on  the,  216,  n.  4  ;  by 
the  Catholics,  247. 

Convicts  asked  for  by  Dale,  47. 

Cook's  Historical  View  of  Christianity, 
138,  n.  8. 

Cooper,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  an 
swered  first  Mar-Prelate  tract,  116. 

Copley,  business  administrator  of 
Jesuits,  251,  264,  n.  17. 

Corn  not  planted  at  proper  season, 
44,  60,  n.  2  ;  ground  for,  cleared, 
48  ;  more  raised  by  private  than  by 
public  labor,  49. 

Cotton,  John,  apparent  sanction  of 
Antinomianism  by,  267  ;  one  of  the 
greatest  luminaries  of  the  Puritans 
and  one  of  the  lights  of  New  Eng 
land,  269 ;  apostle  of  theocracy, 
shaped  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  New 
England,  279,  308,  n.  8  ;  his  rivals 
left  Massachusetts,  280  ;  virtually 
attained  a  bishop's  authority,  280  ; 
on  Williams's  book,  282  ;  complete 
system  of  church-state  organization, 
287  ;  verbal  legerdemain  on  Wil 
liams's  banishment,  297  ;  casuistry 
of,  299,  313,  n.  20  ;  321  ;  attitude 
toward  Williams's  banishment,  299, 
300,  313,  n.  21  ;  source  of  his  in 
tolerance,  300  ;  belongs  among  the 
diplomatic  builders  of  churches, 
306  ;  uncandid  and  halting  ac 
counts  of  Williams's  trial,  309,  310, 
n.  12  ;  311,  n.  17  ;  curious  sinuosity 
of  conscience,  313,  n.  21  ;  secured 
by  Boston  to  balance  Newtown's 
Hooker,  319  ;  rivalry  with  Hooker, 
320  ;  Puritanism  of,  grew  in  a  gar 
den  of  spices,  321  :  of  a  sanguine 
temperament,  328  ;  his  advent  fol 
lowed  by  widespread  religious  ex 
citement,  329  ;  theological  differ 
ences  between  his  teachings  and 
those  of  Hooker,  346,  n.  I  ;  Model 
of  Moses  his  Judicials,  326  ;  opin 
ions  recanted  and  modified  by,  336  ; 
defends  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  337  ; 
persuades  her  to  recant,  339  ;  dis 
franchises  her  sons,  339  ;  belated 
zeal  of,  against  the  sectaries,  341  ; 
wallows  in  superstition,  341. 

Cotton  planted,  29. 

Cotton's  Answer  to  Williams's  Ex 
amination,  308,  n.  10,  ii  ;  310,  n. 
16  ;  313,  n.  20,  21  ;  Fountain  of 
Life,  328,  m.  ;  Sermon  on  the 


Church's  Resurrection,  331,  m.  ; 
334,  m  ;  Way  of  Congregational 
Churches,  157,  n.  2  ;  219,  n.  10  ; 
330,  m  ;  336,  m. 

Council  for  New  England  grants  a 
patent  to  the  Massachusetts  pro 
jectors,  199,  207. 

Councilors  of  estate  in  Virginia,  55. 

Counter-Blaste  to  Tobacco,  84,  m. 

Country,  a  barren,  a  great  whet  to 
industry,  177. 

Courtier,  the  honor  of  a,  possessed  by 
Calvert,  223  ;  the  happiest  has  least 
to  do  at  court,  258,  n.  i. 

Courts  of  High  Commission,  penalties 
of,  270. 

Covenant  of  grace  vs.  covenant  of 
works,  331,  334,  335. 

Cox,  Richard,  followers  of,  dispute 
with  those  of  John  Knox,  105. 

Cox's  Literature  of  the  Sabbath  Ques 
tion,  127,  m.  ;  138,  n.  8  ;  139,  n.  10. 

Cradock,  Mathew,  Governor  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  proposes 
transfer  of  the  government,  206, 
208,  209 ;  resigned  his  governor 
ship,  210 ;  denounced  by  Laud, 
211  ;  letter  to  Endecott,  216,  n.  4. 

Credulity  about  America,  2,  20  ;  abyss 
of  seventeenth  century,  341. 

Customs,  low,  advocated  by  Captain 
John  Smith,  37. 

Cyuile  and  Vncyuile  Life,  134,  n.  i. 

Dainties,  preachers  who  spread  a 
table  of,  complained  of,  328,  348, 
n.  5. 

Dainty,  Argall's  voyage  in  the,  50. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  sent  to  Virginia, 
43  ;  tyranny  of,  45-47 ;  horrible 
cruelties  of,  46  ;  services,  47  ;  theat 
rical  return,  48,  68,  n.  10  ;  glowing 
reports  of  the  country,  49,  168  ; 
cruelties  of,  proved,  66,  n.  9  ;  his 
severity,  67,  n.  9  ;  various  authori 
ties  on,  67,  n.  9. 

Danvers,  Sir  John,  interested  in  the 
Virginia  Company,  54  ;  in  power, 
71,  n.  17  ;  one  of  the  fathers  of  rep 
resentative  government  in  America, 
173- 

Darien,  Isthmus  of,  6. 

Davenport,  John,  took  part  in  the 
synod,  343 ;  with  his  followers 
planted  the  New  Haven  colony, 
343- 


358 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


Days  of  the  week,  scruples  about  the 
heathen  names  of  the,  302,  314, 
n.  23. 

Days  of  fasting  and  prayer  appointed, 

324- 

De  Costa,  in  Mag.  of  Amer.  Hist., 
23,  n.  8. 

De  la  Warr,  Lady,  plundered  by  Ar- 
gall,  50. 

De  la  Warr,  Lord,  sends  expedition 
for  gold,  13  ;  arrival  of,  regretted 
by  the  old  settlers,  41  ;  governor  at 
Jamestown,  41  ;  resides  at  the  falls 
of  the  James,  43  :  flight  of,  from  the 
colony,  43  ;  nominally  governor, 
44  ;  ceremonious  landing  at  James 
town,  101  ;  escorted  to  church  by 
gentlemen  and  guards,  102. 

Deane,  Charles,  Voyages  of  Cabot,  21, 
n.  i  ;  misunderstood  a  statement 
by  Bradford,  184,  n.  4. 

Debate,  the  Puritan,  108  ;  bitterness 
of  the,  114;  new  issues,  123  ;  ad 
vantage  of  new  ground  of,  to  the 
Puritan,  131, 

Debates,  theological,  concerned  with 
speculative  dogmas,  108. 

Declaration  of  Virginia,  95,  n.  3. 

Delft  Haven,  the  parting  at,  175. 

Delusions  in  colony-planting,  74. 

Deptford,  gold-refining  works  at,  13. 

De  Rasieres's  letter,  103,  m. 

Dermer,  seeking  the  Pacific,  is  driven 
into  Long  Island  Sound,  9. 

Description  of  the  Now-discovered 
river  and  Country  of  Virginia,  96, 
n.  7. 

Desertion,  Dale's  punishment  for, 
46. 

Devil  worship,  Indian,  belief  in,  16. 

De  Vries's  Voyages,  m.,  231. 

Dexter,  F.  B.,  in  Winsor's  Narrative 
and  Critical  History,  155,  m. 

Dexter's  H.  M.,  Congregationalism, 
147,  m.  ;  157,  n.  i ;  185,  n.  6  ;  "  As 
to  Roger  Williams,"  as  erudite  as 
it  is  one-sided,  311,  n.  17. 

Discontent,  numerous  causes  for,  in, 
135-  n.  5. 

Discourse  of  the  Old  Virginia  Com 
pany,  54,  m.  ;  66,  n.  9  ;  68,  n.  n  ; 
70,  n.  16. 

Discovery,  the  pinnace,  25. 

Dispersions  from  the  mother  colony, 
315. 

Display,  love  of,  in  Elizabeth's  time, 


98 ;  greatness  declared  itself  by, 
100,  134,  n.  2. 

Dissension,  outbreak  of,  among  the 
English  Protestant  exiles,  104. 

Dividends,  Dale's  aim  to  make  the 
colony  pay,  45. 

D'Ogeron  supplied  buccaneers  with 
wives,  71,  n.  18. 

Dogs  as  food,  8. 

Domestic  Correspondence,  James  I, 
134,  n.  i. 

Dorchester  Company,  failure  of  colo 
ny  of,  on  Cape  Ann,  189,  199. 

Dorchester,  Mass.,  church  covenant, 
219,  n.  9  ;  ready  to  follow  the  lead 
of  Hooker,  323  ;  settlers  remove 
from  to  Connecticut,  324  ;  church 
emigrated  bodily,  325. 

Drama,  the  age  of  the,  99. 

Dress,  inordinate  display  in,  134,  n.  2  ; 
laws  to  repress,  100  ;  excesses  in,  de 
nounced,  1 20  ;  regulations  against, 
in  Massachusetts,  285. 

Drunkenness,  punishment  for,  342. 

Dudley,  a  zealous  advocate  of  reli 
gious  intolerance,  287  ;  impatient  to 
snuff  out  Williams,  288  ;  verse  by, 
288  ;  rude  and  overbearing,  338. 

Dudley  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln, 
174,  317,  m. 

Durham,  legal  power  of  Bishops  of, 
given  to  proprietor  of  Maryland, 
236,  263,  n.  12. 

Dutch  Government  declined  to  assure 
the  Pilgrims  of  protection  against 
England,  173  ;  made  tempting  of 
fers  to  the  Independents,  176  ;  de 
spised  for  showing  toleration,  298, 
311,  n.  1 8  ;  laid  claim  to  the  Con 
necticut,  323  ;  occupation  giving 
way,  346. 

Duties,  heavy,  on  tobacco,  85,  96, 
n.  8. 

Dyer,  Mary,  misfortune  of,  340. 

East  India  Company's  agents,  cruelty 
of,  67,  n.  9. 

East  Indies,  desire  for  a  short  passage 
to  the,  3,  4,  5,  12,  22,  n.  5. 

Eastward,  Ho  !  the  play  of,  23. 

Ecclesiastical  Commission,  the  in 
quisitorial,  114. 

Ecclesiastical  extension  desired  by  the 
English  Church,  90 ;  organization 
of  the  Brownists  dominant,  141  ; 
politics  explosive  in  Massachusetts, 


Index. 


359 


326  ;  system  of  government,  petty 
tyranny  that  inheres  in,  342. 

Economic  success  of  the  Virginia  col 
ony  assured,  49  ;  adverse  conditions 
more  deadly  than  an  ungenial  cli 
mate,  78  ;  problems  solved  by  home 
ly  means,  84. 

Edwards,  T.,  Antapologia,  217,  n.  4. 

Eliot,  Sir  John,  confined  in  the  Tower, 
203. 

Eliot,  John,  convinced  of  error,  290, 
291  ;  usher  and  disciple  of  Hooker, 

317. 

Eliot's  Biography,  201,  m.  ;  288,  m. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  jeweled  dresses  of, 
98  ;  gorgeous  progresses  of,  99 ; 
could  not  compel  uniformity,  109  ; 
threatens  to  unfrock  a  bishop,  no  ; 
molded  the  church  to  her  will,  112  ; 
her  policy  of  repression  resulted  in 
the  civil  war,  114  ;  greatest  popu 
larity  in  last  years  of  her  reign, 

121. 

Elizabethan  age,  the,  i  ;   prodigal  of  j 
daring  adventure,  20. 

Ellis  Letters,  The,  182,  n.  I. 

Ellis  collection,  first  series,  238,  m. 

Elton's  brief  biography  of  Roger  Wil 
liams,  311,  n.  17. 

Emigrants  sail  for  Virginia,  25  ;  bad 
character  of  the,  27,  59. 

Emigration  to  New  England  quick 
ened  by  troubles  that  preceded  the 
civil  war,  344  ;  reached  greatest 
height  in  1638,  344  ;  ceased  entire 
ly  in  1640,  344  ;  to  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  received  impetus  from 
check  of  Puritan  exodus,  344,  345. 

Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  the 
cradle  of  Puritan  divines,  316. 

Endecott,  John,  leadership  and  char 
acter  of,  200 ;  cut  arm  of  cross 
from  English  colors,  201  ;  put  Quak 
ers  to  death,  202  ;  impetuous  radi 
calism  of,  271  ;  protested  against 
the  double  injustice  to  Salem,  291  ; 
arrested,  apologized,  and  submitted, 
291  ;  witnesses  for  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son  browbeaten  by,  338. 

England,  danger  from,  feared  in 
Massachusetts,  284,  285. 

English,  character  of  the,  at  the  period 
of  Elizabeth  and  James,  20 ;  sober 
living  of,  342  ;  superior  aptitude  of, 
for  planting  agricultural  communi 
ties,  346  ;  compactness  of  settle 


ment  and  increase  of,  decided  the 
fate  of  North  America,  346. 

English  knowledge  and  notions  of 
America,  i  ;  first  protest  against 
oppression,  56  ;  jealousy  of  Spain, 
74,  94,  n.  I  ;  ecclesiastics  reproached 
by  Roman  Catholics,  90,  97,  n.  n  ; 
Church  leaders  not  content  while 
Spanish  priests  converted  infidels, 
90  ;  eminent  clergy  among  the  ex 
iled,  104  ;  churches  organized  in 
cities  of  refuge,  104  ;  beginning  of 
two  parties  in  the  Church,  107  ; 
heads  of  the  Church  attacked  by 
Mar-Prelate,  115  ;  laws  against 
Catholics  embarrass  the  foreign 
policy,  238  ;  rise  of  the  first  of  the 
colonies,  i ;  prospective  ascendency 
of  the  colonies,  345. 

English  Protestantism.  See  PROTES 
TANTISM,  ENGLISH. 

Ephod  of  Jewish  high  priest,  discus 
sion  of  material  of,  108. 

Epworth,  the  nest  of  Methodism,  150. 

Esquimaux  kidnaped  by  Frobisher,  17. 

Eustachius  and  his  document  dropped 
from  heaven,  138,  n.  8. 

Evans,  Owen,  accused  of  "pressing" 
maidens,  72,  n.  19. 

Evelyn's  Diary,  18,  m.  ;  134,  n,  i. 

Excerpta  de  Diversis  Literis,  246,  m. 

Excommunication  dreaded  by  the  Pu 
ritans,  339. 

Exiles,  the  English,  104  ;  return  of, 
107  ;  results  of  their  squabbles,  107. 

Exploration,  American,  the  history  of, 
a  story  of  delusion  and  mistake,  3  ; 
retarded  settlement,  4. 

Extravagance  of  Indian  tales,  8. 

Factions  at  Jamestown,  36,  64,  n.  4. 

Fairs  and  markets  on  Sundays,  138, 
n.  8. 

Faith,  devotion  to,  245. 

Families,  the  colony  a  camp  of  men 
without,  42  ;  a  plantation  can  never 
flourish  without,  57  ;  some,  sent  to 
Virginia  with  De  la  Warr,  65,  n.  8. 

Family  of  Love,  Anne  Hutchinson 
accused  of  accepting  the  doctrines 
of  the,  335. 

Famine  at  Jamestown,  38,  65,  n.  5. 

Fast  day,  a,  appointed  in  Massachu 
setts,  286. 

Ferrar,  John,  election  of,  71,  n.  17  ; 
deputy  governor,  91. 


360 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


Ferrar,  Nicholas,  Jr.,  deputy  governor 
of  Virginia  Company,  91 ;  estab 
lished  a  religious  community  at  Lit 
tle  Gidding,  92  ;  austere  discipline 
of,  93  ;  mediceval  enthusiasm  of, 
194. 

Ferrar,  Nicholas,  Sr.,  courts  of  Vir 
ginia  Company  held  at  house  of, 
91  ;  gave  money  for  educating  in 
fidels  in  Virginia,  91. 

Ferrars,  the,  among  the  founders  of 
liberal  institutions  in  America,  173. 

Firearms,  sale  of,  to  the  savages,  191, 
216,  n.  i. 

Firmin's,  Giles,  Review  of  Davis's 
Vindication,  348,  n.  5. 

Fisheries,  American,  importance  of, 
foreseen,  by  Capt.  John  Smith,  37  ; 
of  Newfoundland,  261,  n.  7. 

Fishing  on  Sunday,  ordinances  against, 
127. 

Fishing  seasons  in  the  James  River 
learned,  49. 

Fleet,  Henry,  only  survivor  of  Spel- 
man's  party,  22,  n.  7. 

Fleet's  Journal,  23,  n.  7. 

Flemish  Protestants  favored  inde 
pendency,  158,  n.  2. 

Font,  the  stone,  at  which  Bradford 
was  baptized,  151. 

Food,  bad  and  insufficient,  45,  46. 

Force,  men  not  to  be  converted  by, 
312,  n.  19. 

Formalities,  proper,  never  omitted, 
41,  101  ;  at  Plymouth,  102. 

Founding  of  a  state  a  secondary  end, 

Fox,  Luke,  sails  to  the  northwest,  10. 

Franck's,  Sebastian,  Chronica,  314, 
n.  24. 

Frankfort,  disputes  in  the  church  at, 
produced  great  results,  105  ;  char 
acter  of  debates  at,  105  ;  rapid 
changes  produced  by  the,  106,  135, 
n.  3. 

Freemen's  oath  extended  to  residents, 
289,  308,  n.  ii  ;  opposed  by  Wil 
liams,  289,  309,  n.  12. 

Fresh  River  of  the  Dutch,  the  Con 
necticut,  324. 

Frobisher's,  Sir  Martin,  voyages,  2,  4, 
n.  I  ;  brilliant  failure,  5  ;  attempt 
to  plant  a  colony,  7  ;  finds  "gold 
cure,"  13  ;  Voyages,  21,  n.  I. 

Fuller,  Thomas,  judgment  of  Captain 
John  Smith,  63,  n.  3. 


Fuller's  Church  History,  103,  m. ; 
131,  m.  ;  157,  n.  i  :  160,  m.  ; 
Worthies,  259,  n.  6. 

Gainsborough,  the  hamlet  of,  150. 

Gammell's  Life  of  Roger  Williams, 
311,  n.  17. 

Gardens,  private,  apportioned  in  Vir 
ginia,  48,  49,  68,  n.  12. 

Gates,  Sir  Thomas,  wrecked  on  the 
Bermudas,  40 ;  abandoned  the 
wreck  of  Jamestown,  41,  101  ;  sent 
to  England  for  cattle,  41  ;  denied 
that  human  flesh  was  eaten,  65,  n. 
5  ;  installed  governor  in  proper 
form,  101. 

General  Court  of  Massachusetts  pro 
tested  against  selection  of  Williams 
as  a  minister  of  the  Salem  church, 
271  ;  prevented  his  ordination,  272, 
307,  n.  5  ;  makes  regulations  for 
dress,  285  ;  appointed  a  fast  day, 
286  ;  promulgated  a  new  resident's 
oath,  289  ;  "  convented  "  Williams 
several  times,  289 ;  forced  Salem 
into  submission,  291,  293  ;  tried 
and  banished  Williams,  292  ;  fear 
ing  his  settlement  at  Narragansett 
Bay,  agreed  to  send  him  to  Eng 
land,  294  ;  banished  scores  for  their 
opinions,  297  ;  the  real  extenuation 
for  the  conduct  of  the,  297  ;  charac 
ter  of  the  age  forbids  condemnation 
of,  300. 

Geneva,  the  city  of  refuge  for  the 
Puritans,  104 ;  differences  between 
exiles  at,  and  those  at  Zurich,  107. 

Gibbons,  Captain,  of  Boston,  commis 
sion  sent  to,  252. 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  on  a  north 
west  passage,  5  ;  attempt  to  plant  a 
colony,  7. 

Glass-blowers  ran  away  to  the  In 
dians,  83. 

Glass,  window,  not  used  in  the  col 
ony,  65,  n.  7. 

Glass-works  established  near  James 
town,  83,  95,  n.  5. 

Glastonbury,  also  called  Avalon,  258, 
n.  3- 

Glover  in  Phil.  Trans.,  11,  m. 

Godspeed,  The,  25. 

Gold  and  silver,  exportation  of,  re 
strained  by  law,  75. 

Gold,  belief  in  finding,  in  North 
America,  12,  14,  22,  n.  7  ;  75. 


Index. 


36i 


Gold-hunting,  7,  12  ;  in  Virginia,  13, 

23,  42. 

Gold  mines  of  the  Hudson  River,  23. 

Gondomar's  spies  in  the  Virginia 
Company,  87  ;  influence  over  Cal- 
vert,  226,  258,  n.  2. 

Goodman's  Court  of  King  James, 
258,  n.  2. 

Goodwin,  Thomas,  and  others,  Apolo- 
getical  Narrative,  185,  n,  6. 

Gorges's  Briefe  Narration,  196,  m. 

Gowns  and  litanies,  squabbles  about, 
107. 

Gosnold,  agitating  for  a  new  colony, 
33  ;  failure  of  colony  in  Buzzard's 
Bay  established  by,  178. 

Government,  democratic,  established 
by  the  Pilgrims  before  sailing,  185, 
n.  5  ;  three  primary  steps  for,  in 
America,  due  to  Englishmen  who 
did  not  cross  the  sea,  205. 

Government,  representative  form  of, 
established,  55,  89 ;  faint  promise 
of,  in  Maryland  charter,  234. 

Governmental  functions  exercised  by 
commercial  corporations,  218,  n.  8. 

Grace  after  meat  opposed  by  Wil 
liams,  289,  290,  292,  309,  n.  12. 

Greenham's,  Richard,  MS.  on  the 
Sabbath,  128. 

Greenwood,  leader  of  the  Separatists, 
hanged  at  Tyburn,  148. 

Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  sent  to  Vir 
ginia  by  Ralegh,  21,  n.  3. 

Guiana  or  North  America,  Pilgrims 
choose  between,  169. 

Guicciardini  on  use  of  spices,  22,  n  5. 

Guilds,  dissolution  of  the,  in. 

Haies  in  Hakluyt's  Voyages,  5,  m. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  a  forerunner  of 
colonization,  5  ;  belief  of,  in  a  pas 
sage  to  the  Pacific,  6 ;  stories  of 
gold,  12  ;  of  mulberry  trees,  76. 

Hakluyt's  Discourse  on  Western 
Planting,  6,  m. ;  94,  n.  I  ;  97,  n.  n  ; 
Voyages,  2  ;  5,  m. ;  8,  m. ;  12,  m.  ; 
23,  n.  8. 

Hamor,  Raphe,  secretary  under  Dale, 
a  signer  of  the  Tragicall  Relation, 
66,  n.  9  ;  True  Discourse,  66,  n.  9 ; 
68,  n.  12  ;  70,  n.  16 ;  95,  n.  3. 

Hampton  Court  conference,  159;  au 
thorities  on  the,  182,  n.  I. 

Hanbury's  Memorials,  157,  n.  i,  n.  2  ; 
158,  n.  3. 


Hancock,    Thomas,    the    Luther    of 

England,  125. 

Hanging  clemency,  46  ;  preferred  to 
transportation  to  Virginia,  54  ;  and 
to  the  old  tyranny,  56. 
Hardwicke  Papers,  238,  m. 
Hariot's  Briefe  and  True  Report,  80,  m. 
Harleian  Miscellany,  240  m. 

Harrington's  Nugos  Antiquse,  116,  m.  ; 
161,  m. ;  162,  m.  ;  182,  n.  i. 

Harrisse's,  Henry,  John  Cabot,  the 
Discoverer  of  America,  21,  n.  i. 

Hartlib's  Reformed  Virginia  Silk 
worm,  79. 

Harvey,  Sir  John,  sends  expedition 
for  gold,  13  ;  Governor  of  Virginia, 
249 ;  quarreled  with  Virginians, 
249 ;  counter-revolution,  249. 

Hawkins,  Jane,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  an 
associate  of,  340. 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  lands  luckless  sea 
men  in  Mexico,  14. 

Haynes,  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
332  ;  pronounced  sentence  against 
Williams,  347,  n.  i  ;  letter  to  Wil 
liams  while  Governor  of  Connecti 
cut  quoted,  347,  n.  I. 

Health  to  the  Gentlemanly  Profession 
of  Servingmen,  134,  n.  i. 

Hearne's  Langtoft's  Chronicle,  93,  m. 

Hening's  Statutes,  78,  m.  ;  79,  m.  ; 
97,  n.  9. 

Henrietta  Maria,  Maryland  named 
for,  245  ;  godmother  to  Maryland, 
jealous  of  Calvert,  249. 

Henry,  Prince,  interested  in  Virginia 
colony,  43. 

Henry,  William  Wirt,  Address,  63,  n.  3. 

Hessey'sBampton  Lectures,  139,  n.  10. 

Hind's  Making  of  the  England  of 
Elizabeth,  135,  n.  3. 

Hinman's  Antiquities,  347,  n.  2. 

Hogs,  brood,  of  the  colony  eaten,  38  ; 
wild,  in  the  Bermudas,  41,  65,  n.  6. 

Holinshed's  Chronicles,  22,  n.  5. 

Holland,  the  "mingle  mangle  of  re 
ligions  "  in,  164. 

Holmes's  History  of  Cambridge,  318, 
m.  ;  320,  m. 

Home,  Virginia  for  the  first  time  a,  58. 

Home-makers  sent  to  Virginia,  57,  58. 

Homesteads  at  Newtown  sold  to  new 
comers,  325,  347,  n.  3. 

Hooft,  Nederiandsche  Historic,  312, 
n.  18. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  one  of  the  greatest 


362 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


luminaries  of  the  Puritans,  269  ; 
desire  of  his  party  to  move  to  Con 
necticut,  285,  315  ;  set  to  dispute 
with  Williams,  292  ;  early  life  of, 
316 ;  driven  from  his  pulpit  by 
Laud,  317  ;  fled  to  Holland,  317  ;  a 
company  of  his  people  settled  at 
Newtown,  317 ;  arrival  at  New- 
town,  319;  rivalry  with  Cotton, 
320  ;  somber  theology  of,  320  ;  dif 
ference  between  his  teachings  and 
those  of  Cotton,  321,  346,  n.  i  ; 
theories  of  civil  government  more 
liberal  than  Cotton's,  322  ;  limited 
the  power  of  the  magistrate,  322, 
347,  n.  2  ;  the  real  founder  of  Con 
necticut,  325. 

Hornbeck  on  John  Robinson,  158, 
n.  3. 

Horses  eaten,  38. 

Houses  burned  for  firewood,  40. 

Hubbard's  History  of  Massachusetts, 
308,  n.  8  ;  History  of  New  England, 
207,  m.  ;  215,  m.;  347,  n.  3  ;  testi 
mony  of,  unreliable,  311,  n.  17. 

Hudson,  Henry,  influenced  by  Cap 
tain  John  Smith,  seeks  the  South 
Sea,  9. 

Hudson  River  gold,  23,  n.  7. 

Huguenots  of  La  Rochelle,  England 
allied  with,  239. 

Humming  birds  exported,  18. 

Hundreds  or  plantations,  54,  55. 

Hunt,  Robert,  first  minister  in  Vir 
ginia,  90. 

Hunter,  Rev.  Joseph,  on  Shake 
speare's  Tempest,  65,  n.  6. 

Hunter's  Founders  of  New  Plymouth, 
150,  m.;  152,  m.;  155,  m.  ;  170,  m. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  an  ardent 
disciple  of  Cotton  in  old  Boston, 
329  :  character  of,  329,  330  ;  "  mas 
terpiece  of  womens  wit,"  330 ; 
meetings  for  women  opened  by, 
330 ;  doctrines  of,  331  ;  the  very 
apostle  of  Cotton's  doctrine,  333  ; 
brought  to  trial  by  her  opponents, 
337  ;  adroit  defense,  338  ;  con 
demned  by  the  General  Court,  338  ; 
sentenced  to  banishment,  339  ;  re 
canted,  but  was  excommunicated, 
339,  348,  n.  8  ;  her  sons  disfran 
chised,  339  ;  settled  in  Rhode 
Island  with  her  party,  340 ;  ac 
cused  of  witchcraft  by  Winthrop, 
340  ;  wild  reports  about,  340,  341  ; 


massacred  by  Indians  at  New 
Netherland,  341. 

Hutchinson  on  the  Virginia  Colony, 
186,  n.  8. 

Hutchinson  Papers,  2i5,m.  ;  299,  m.  ; 
307,  m. ;  329,  n.  i. 

Hutchinson  party  partisans  of  Vane, 
332  ;  arrogance  of  the,  333  ;  Pastor 
Wilson  condemned  by,  333. 

Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachu 
setts  Bay,  211,  m. ;  337,  m. 

Hutchinsonian  controversy,  the,  326, 
327  ;  the  debate  waxed  hot,  334. 

Hypocrites  better  than  profane  per 
sons,  299. 

Idolatry,  Puritanism  a  crusade  against, 
118. 

Illusions  of  discoverers,  3,  75. 

Inclosures,  effects  of,  135,  n.  5  ;  for 
private  not  the  publick  good,  136, 
n.  5- 

Independency,  tendency  toward,  112, 
136,  n.  6 ;  foreshadowed  at  Frank 
fort,  137,  n.  6  ;  dated  back  to  reign 
of  Mary,  146  ;  favored  by  Flemish 
Protestants,  158,  n.  2  ;  Robinsonian, 
the  established  religion  in  New 
England,  215. 

Independents  in  early  years  of  Eliza 
beth's  reign,  158,  n.  2. 

Indian  children,  rewards  to  colonists 
for  educating,  91. 

Indian  conjurers  laid  spell  on  the 
coast,  178. 

Indian  exhumed  and  eaten  at  James 
town,  39. 

Indians  plot  destruction  of  the  colo 
nists,  8  ;  curiosity  regarding  the,  15  ; 
desire  to  convert,  16,  90 ;  kid 
napped  and  exhibited,  17  ;  attack 
those  first  landing  in  Virginia,  28  ; 
constant  fear  of  attack  from,  30  ; 
supply  food  to  Jamestown,  31  •, 
Smith  trades  with,  34,  36  ;  devilish 
ingenuity  in  torturing,  38  ;  outrage 
the  dead,  38,  64,  n.  4  ;  slay  gold 
hunters,  43  ;  no  danger  from,  while 
Dale  was  in  charge,  47  ;  taken  to 
England  by  Dale,  49,  68,  n.  10 ; 
unnecessary  cruelty  to,  64,  n.  4 ; 
reverence  for  their  sacred  house,  64, 
n.  4  ;  endowed  school  established 
for,  83,  91  ;  schemes  for  educating 
obliterated,  92  ;  treachery  of,  emu 
lated  by  the  settlers,  92  ;  destruc- 


Index. 


363 


tion  of,  in  Maryland  and  in  Massa 
chusetts  divinely  ordered,  247  ; 
right  of  the  king  to  give  away  lands 
of,  questioned,  274,  282,  283  ;  land 
secured  from,  by  purchase,  283. 

Industrial  disturbance  aids  the  Puri 
tan  movement,  in. 

Infallibility  of  "godly  "  elders,  301. 

Ingram,  Davy,  crosses  the  continent, 
14  ;  statement,  14,  23,  n.  8. 

Injunctions  by  King  Edward  VI, 
138,  n.  9. 

Interludes  sometimes  played  in 
churches,  129. 

Intolerance  sanctioned  by  logic,  299. 

Iron  works  established  at  Falling 
Creek,  83  ;  failure  of,  96,  n.  6. 

Isthmus  in  latitude  40°,  belief  in  an, 
10. 

James  I  framed  code  of  laws  and  or 
ders  for  the  Virginia  colony,  26  ; 
Covnter-Blaste  to  Tobacco,  84 ;  ob 
stinacy  of,  87  ;  his  accession  raised 
the  hopes  of  the  Puritans,  159  ; 
paradoxical  qualities  of,  160  ;  dia 
lectic  skill  at  Hampton  Court  con 
ference,  160  ;  refutes  the  hapless 
Puritans,  161  ;  boasts  that  he  had 
peppered  the  Puritans,  162,  182,  n. 
i  ;  results  of  his  folly,  162  ;  would 
wink  at  but  not  publicly  tolerate 
the  Pilgrims,  170;  refused  guaran 
tee  of  toleration,  173  ;  friendship 
with  George  Calvert,  223  ;  revenue 
from  fines  of  lay  Catholics,  238  ; 
Apologie  for  the  Oath  of  Allegiance, 
238. 

James,  Puritan  minister  in  Mary 
land,  253. 

James  River  discovered  by  the  acci 
dent  of  a  storm,  27  ;  settlement 
near  the  falls  of  the,  37. 

James  River  experiments,  the,  25  ; 
their  story  the  overture  to  the  his 
tory  of  life  in  the  United  States,  58. 

Jamestown,  causes  of  suffering  at,  13  ; 
founded,  29 ;  at  first  a  peninsula, 
29  ;  abandoned,  41  ;  population  in 
1616,  49  ;  in  1889,  59,  n.  I ;  some 
drawings  of,  60,  n.  I. 

Jamestown  Company,  the.  See  VIR 
GINIA  COMPANY,  THE. 

Jamestown  emigrants  instructed  to 
explore  rivers  to  the  northwest,  9. 

Jesuits   flock  to   England,  226  ;   set 


free,  239  ;  interested  in  migration 
to  Maryland,  240  ;  the  provincial 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus  favored  tol 
eration,  242  ;  religious  observances 
of,  at  sea,  243  ;  conversion  of  non- 
Catholics  in  Maryland  by,  246 ; 
fled  to  Virginia,  257. 

Jesus,  the  humane  pity  of,  unknown 
to  the  laws  and  sermons  of  the 
time,  301,  313,  n.  22. 

Johnson,  Bradley  T.,  Foundation  of 
Maryland,  263,  n.  15. 

Johnson,  Edward,  the  bloodthirsty 
Massachusetts  Puritan,  164 ;  his 
Wonder-working  Providence,  318, 
m.  ;  320,  m.  ;  330,  m. 

Johnson,  Francis,  voyage  of,  to  Amer 
ica,  167 ;  pastor  at  Amsterdam, 
168. 

Johnston,  Isaac,  of  Winthrop's  com 
pany,  death  of,  212. 

Jones,  captain  of  The  Mayflower,  con 
duct  of,  177  ;  identified  with  Jones 
of  The  Discovery,  186,  n.  7. 

Jones's,  Rev.  Hugh,  Present  State  of 
Virginia,  183,  n.  3. 

Josselyn's  Rarities,  344,  m. 

Judgment,  present,  not  a  binding  law, 
185,  n.  6. 

Judgments,  divine/fear  of,  198. 

Kent  Island,  Claiborne's  claim  to, 
254- 

Knowles's  Life  of  Williams,  274,  m.  ; 
308,  n.  9  ;  the  best  of  the  older 
biographies,  311,  n.  17. 

Knox,  John,  followers  of,  dispute 
with  the  Coxans  at  Frankfort,  105  ; 
not  more  a  Sabbatarian  than  Cal 
vin,  124. 

Labor,  common-stock  system  of,  at 
Jamestown,  26  ;  abolished  by  dis 
tribution  of  land,  56 ;  failure  of,  at 
Plymouth,  179;  evils  of,  186,  n.  9. 

Labor,  private,  more  productive  than 
common-stock  system,  49  ;  prohib 
ited  on  Sundays,  127. 

Laborers,  twelve  so-called,  in  the  Vir 
ginia  colony,  27. 

Land,  division  of,  in  Virginia,  48,  49, 
56,  68,  n.  12. 

Land  grants,  various,  in  Virginia, 
based  on  the  Grand  Charter,  56, 
70,  n.  15. 

Lane,  Ralph,  governor  of  Ralegh's 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


first  colony,  7,  21,  n.  3  ;  seeks  gold 
and  the  South  Sea,  8 ;  account  in 
Hakluyt,  iii,  8,  m.  ;  hopes  for  his 
Roanoke  colony,  74  ;  to  Sydney  and 
Walsingham,  74,  m. 

Latitude  of  40°,  belief  of  a  westward 
passage  in,  9,  10. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  obliterated  by 
Puritanism,  133  ;  one  great  service 
of,  to  the  world,  193  ;  character  of, 
193  ;  fearless  in  peril,  195  ;  dubbed 
"  the  father  of  New  England,"  196  ; 
Letter  to  Selden,  196  ;  Abbott's  ac 
count  of  Laud's  rise,  216,  n.  2  ;  fails 
to  crush  the  Massachusetts  Com 
pany,  2ii ;  suppressing  Puritanism, 
239  ;  fall  of,  240  ;  non-conforming 
Puritans  hunted  from  lectureships 
and  chaplaincies  by,  270 ;  drove 
John  Cotton  to  New  England,  279  ; 
moving  to  vacate  the  Massachusetts 
charter,  282  ;  made  head  of  a  com 
mission  to  govern  the  colonies,  284; 
drove  Hooker  from  his  pulpit  at 
Chelmsford,  317  ;  preparations  to 
control  Massachusetts  made  by, 
343 ;  asked  to  stop  emigration  to 
New  England,  344 ;  tries  to  com 
pel  Scots  to  use  prayer  book,  344. 

Laws,  divine,  moral,  and  martial, 
under  which  Dale  oppressed  Vir 
ginia,  45,  70,  n.  16  ;  132. 

Leah  and  Rachel,  79,  m.  ;  265,  n.  25. 

Lederer,  voyage  of,  from  Virginia, 
n,  m. 

Legislative  body  established  by  the 
Great  Charter,  55. 

Leland,  John,  Itinerary,  152,  m. 

Lenox,  Duke  of,  territory  assigned 
to,  259,  n.  5. 

Letters  of  complaint  intercepted,  47. 

Letters  of  Missionaries,  264,  n.  17, 
n.  18. 

Leyden,  Scrooby  exiles  remove  to, 
166  ;  Pilgrims  set  out  from,  174. 

Liberty  in  religion  congruous  with 
civil  peace,  315. 

Lingard,  238,  m. 

Little  Gidding,  Ferrar's  community  at, 
92  ;  devastated  by  the  Puritans,  93. 

Liturgy,  a,  purified  of  human  tradi 
tion,  1 06  ;  omitted  in  many  parishes, 
142. 

London  Separatists,  147  ;  organize  a 
church,  148  ;  miserably  persecuted, 
some  flee  to  Amsterdam,  148. 


Long  Island  Sound,  Dernier  storm- 
driven  into,  9. 

Long  Island,  English  settlers  on,  345. 

Lord's  Prayer,  repetition  of  the, 
thought  dangerously  liturgical,  117. 

Lotteries  of  the  Virginia  Company, 
69,  n.  14  ;  abolished,  53,  70,  n.  14. 

Low  Countries,  toleration  in  the, 
163  ;  condemned  by  Baylie,  164. 

Luther,  Martin,  on  the  Sabbath,  124. 

Machyn's  Diary,  99,  m. 

Magellan's  Strait,  2,  9. 

Magistrates  aided  by  clergy  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  266 ;  men  of  unusual 
ability,  266  ;  right  of,  to  punish  for 
a  religious  offense,  denied  by  Wil 
liams,  272,  286  ;  or  to  regulate  the 
orthodoxy  of  churches  and  the  be 
lief  of  individuals,  292,  309,  n.  12  ; 
310,  n.  13. 

Magna  Charta,  the,  of  America,  55. 

Maids  by  the  shipload  sent  to  James 
town,  57  ;  not  coerced  into  going, 
72,  n.  19. 

Maine,  French  driven  out  of,  50 ;  first 
English  colony  in,  189  ;  fishing  vil 
lages  of,  345. 

Manchester,  Duke  of,  papers,  71,  n.  18  ; 
174,  m. ;  184,  n.  5. 

Manuscript  Book  of  Instructions,  71, 
n.  18  ;  72,  n.  19  ;  80,  m. ;  96,  n.  6  ; 
97,  n.  9  ;  232,  m. 

Manuscript  Records,  Virginia  Com 
pany,  52,  m  ;  61,  n.  3  ;  67,  n.  9  ; 
69,  n.  13,  14  ;  70,  n.  15  ;  71,  n.  18  ; 
72,  n.  19  ;  81,  m.;  82,  m.  ;  95,  n.  3  ; 
97,  n.  9,  10 ;  172,  m.  ;  184,  n.  4. 

Mar-Prelate  tracts,  the,  114;  answers 
to  the,  116;  effects  of  the  reaction 
against,  121. 

Marriage  by  a  Roman  priest  invali 
dated  accruing  land  tenures,  237. 

Marsden's  Early  Puritans,  125. 

Martial  law  under  Dale,  45  ;  Smyth's 
code  of,  70,  n.  16  ;  132. 

Martin,  Sir  William,  on  Roger  Wil 
liams,  307,  n.  i. 

Martyr,  Peter,  Decade  III,  24,  n.  9. 

Maryland,  Baltimore's  projected  colo 
ny  in,  236  ;  change  to,  from  Avalon, 
239  ;  small  migration  to,  240  ;  pol 
icy  of  toleration  in,  242,  250,  265, 
n.  25  ;  committed  to  guardian  an 
gels,  243  ;  arrival  of  the  Catholic 
pilgrims,  244 ;  ceremonies  of  the 


Index. 


365 


landing  in,  244  ;  said  to  have  been 
named  by  King  Charles,  245  ;  called 
Colony  of  St.  Maries,  245  ;  efforts 
to  convert  the  Protestants  in,  246  ; 
openly  a  Catholic  colony,  247,  264, 
n.  17  ;  import  tax  on  Catholic  serv 
ants  and  convicts,  248,  264,  n.  19  ; 
opposition  to  Maryland,  249  ;  Puri 
tan  settlers  invited,  252  ;  civil  wars 
of,  253,  254 ;  Act  of  Toleration 
passed,  255  ;  again  a  proprietary 
government  under  Calvert,  257  ; 
disastrous  results  of  religious  differ 
ences  in,  266. 

Maryland  Archives,  245,  m.;  262,  n. 
10 ;  265,  n.  21. 

Maryland  Assembly  too  cunning  to  be 
trapped  by  Baltimore,  255. 

Maryland  charter,  ambiguity  of  the, 
designed,  225,  236,  251,  259,  n.  4  ; 
262,  n.  n  ;  compared  with  charter 
of  Avalon,  234;  provisions  of,  235, 
236  ;  extensive  powers  granted  by, 
236,  263,  n.  12. 

Mass  celebrated  in  defiance  of  law, 
226  ;  abhorred  by  the  Puritans  in 
Avalon,  228. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  failure  of  commer 
cial  settlements  on,  189  ;  patent  to 
lands  in,  granted  to  the  Massachu 
setts  Company,  207. 

Massachusetts  charter,  Laud's  effort 
to  vacate  the,  282,  284. 

Massachusetts  colony,  government 
under  Endecott,  217,  n.  7  ;  people 
homogenous  in  religious  affairs,  266  ; 
religious  opinion,  main  source  of 
disturbance  in,  266,  267  ;  self-con 
sciousness  of  the,  278  ;  preparations 
for  resistance  in,  284  ;  failure  as  an 
agricultural  colony,  320;  three  pro 
found  disturbances  in,  326  ;  in  com 
motion  over  the  Hutchinson  con 
troversy,  335. 

Massachusetts  Company,  rise  of  the, 
199,  207  ;  first  colony  of,  under  John 
Endecott,  199,  207  ;  second  com 
pany  of  emigrants,  203  ;  fear  that 
the  charter  might  be  revoked,  208  ; 
company  and  colony  to  be  merged  in 
one,  209  ;  transfers  its  government 
and  charter  to  Massachusetts  Bay, 
210 ;  the  commercial  corporation 
becomes  a  colonial  government, 
211  ;  the  colonists  believed  they 
were  founding  a  new  church,  212. 


Massachusetts  government,  evolution 
of  the,  207  ;  first  court  of,  at  Charles- 
town,  210  ;  later  became  represen 
tative,  211  ;  relieved  from  strain  by 
the  borough  system,  276  ;  a  govern 
ment  of  congregations,  308,  n.  6  ; 
theocratical,  279  ;  religious  intoler 
ance  of  the,  297,  349,  n.  9  ;  anoma 
lous  in  character,  323  ;  angered  by 
Hooker's  secession,  326. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Collections, 
310,  n.  15  ;  318,  m.  ;  320,  m.  ;  347, 
n.  I  ;  348,  n.  7. 

Massachusetts  Records,  206,  m.  ;  285, 
m.  ;  290,  m. ;  291,  m.  ;  308,  n.  n  ; 
310,  n.  13,  17;  317,  m. ;  320,  m.  ; 

337,  m- 

Massacre  by  the  Indians  put  an  end 
to  all  projects,  84,  92. 

Masson's  Life  of  Milton,  137,  n.  6. 

Mather's  Magnalia,  152,  m.  ;  154,  m.  ; 
217,  n.  5  ;  328,  m. ;  authority  to  be 
disregarded,  311,  n.  17. 

Maverick,  Samuel,  on  Noddle's  Is 
land,  190  ;  Description  of  New  Eng 
land,  273,  m. 

Maydstown  laid  off  in  Virginia,  72, 
n.  19. 

Mayflower,  conduct  of  the  captain  of 
the,  177. 

Maynard  to  Laud,  3_|4,  m. 

May-poles,  opposition  to,  118  ;  pole 
of  St.  Andrew  Undershaft  sawed 
up,  119 ;  law  against  May-poles, 
119  ;  the  frolics  around  charged 
with  immorality,  120  ;  Morton's,  at 
Merrymount,  190,  201. 

Mediterranean  Sea,  a,  looked  for  in 
the  heart  of  America,  11. 

Meeting,  last  all-night,  in  Pastor  Rob 
inson's  house,  175. 

Mennonites,  Williams  attracted  to  the 
doctrines  of  the,  312,  n.  19  ;  derived 
his  broadest  principles  from  the,  313, 
n.  19. 

Mercurius  Americanus,  348,  n.  6. 

Merrymount,  Morton's  dangerous  set 
tlement  at,  190,  201,  216,  n.  i. 

Metals,  the  precious,  the  only  recog 
nized  riches,  75. 

Mica  mistaken  for  gold,  13,  30,  75. 

Migration,  the  great,  to  New  England, 
196,  203. 

Millinary  Petition,  the,  159. 

Millinery  sins,  regulations  against, 
285. 


366 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


Mills's  British  India,  67,  n.  9. 

Milton,  John,  learned  Dutch  from 
Roger  Williams,  273. 

Mines,  Mexican,  reports  of  wealth  of, 
brought  support  to  Ralegh's  under 
taking,  74. 

Ministerial  office  never  so  reverenced 
as  by  Puritans,  338. 

Ministers,  two,  over  one  church,  106  ; 
might  prophesy,  but  not  a  woman, 
338. 

Missionary  impulse,  first,  in  the  Eng 
lish  Church,  89,  94,  n.  i. 

Monatesseron,    the   earliest    English, 

93- 

Montserrat,  island  of,  settled  by  Cath 
olics,  231,  232,  261,  n.  9. 

Months,  scruples  about  the  heathen 
names  of  the,  302. 

Morals,  austerity  in,  119;  advance 
of,  under  Puritan  influence,  121  ; 
lack  of  sense  of  proportion  is  a  trait 
of  the  age,  130;  regularity  of,  pur 
chased  at  a  great  sacrifice,  342. 

More,  Father  Henry,  263,  n.  14. 

Morton,  Thomas,  and  his  deviltry, 
190,  201,  216,  n.  i  ;  Memorial,  177, 
m. ;  New  English  Canaan,  216,  n.  i. 

Motives  for  founding  English  colo 
nies,  73  ;  commercial  and  senti 
mental,  86  ;  religious,  89,  189. 

Mount  Desert,  Jesuit  settlement  at, 
plundered,  47,  50. 

Mourt's  Relation,  184,  n.  4. 

Mouse  and  snake,  battle  between, 
277 ;  interpretation  of,  by  Pastor 
John  Wilson,  277. 

Mouse  nibbles  a  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  278. 

Movements,  significant,  usually  cra 
dled  in  rustic  mangers,  146. 

Mulberries  first  planted  in  England, 
76  ;  law  for  promoting  the  raising 
of,  in  Virginia,  77  ;  repealed,  79. 

Muskrat  skins  valued  for  their  odor, 
19. 

Names,  fanciful,  of  the  Newfound 
land  coast,  225,  229. 

Names,  Indian,  of  places  changed, 
244. 

Nansemond,  settlement  at,  37  ;  set 
tlers  driven  from,  38. 

Narragansett  Bay  recommended  to 
Williams  by  Winthrop,  293  ;  pro 
posal  to  remove  to,  alanned  the 


magistrates,  294  ;  colony  on,  found 
ed  on  the  true  principle,  316. 

Narragansett  Club  Publications,  135, 
n.  4;  268,  m.;  307,  n.  3,  4,  5;  311, 
n.  17. 

Naval  stores,  Virginia  expected  to 
produce,  82  ;  efforts  to  procure,  in 
Elizabeth's  time,  95,  n.  4. 

Neal's  History  of  New  England,  310, 
n.  14  ;  History  of  the  Puritans,  159, 
m. ;  226,  m. ;  239,  m. 

Neill,  E.  D.,  on  the  social  compact, 
183,  n.  4;  Founders  of  Maryland, 
262,  n.  n  ;  Virginia  Company,  67, 
n.  9  ;  183,  n.  2. 

Netherlands,  indirect  interest  of  the, 
in  the  Virginia  colony,  44. 

New  England,  coast  of,  explored  by 
Capt.  John  Smith,  37  ;  shaped  in 
Old  England  by  Puritanism,  133  ; 
pioneers  of,  came  from  the  Sepa 
ratists,  141,  146;  existence  of,  hung 
on  a  chain  of  accidents,  176  ;  ele 
ments  of,  177 :  early  attempts  to 
colonize,  178;  early  settlements  in, 
189;  great  migration  to,  196,  203  ; 
capital  laws  of,  condemned  by  Wil 
liams,  304. 

New  England  charter  of  1620,  173. 

New  England  colonists  deemed  them 
selves  a  chosen  people,  278  ;  ac 
counted  other  colonists  the  Egyp 
tians  of  the  New  World,  278,  308, 
n.  7  ;  held  to  an  intolerant  theoc 
racy,  279  ;  dispersions  of  the,  315  ; 
relief  at  disappearance  of  the  last  of 
the  leaders,  342. 

New  England  Firebrand  Quenched, 
301,  m. 

New  England  Historical  Gen.  Reg., 
267  ;  307,  n.  i. 

New  England  Puritanism  more  ultra 
than  Bownd,  132,  140,  n.  3. 

New  England  traits  due  to  special 
causes,  178. 

Newfoundland,  failure  of  colony  at, 
223,  224  ;  Capt.  Whitbourne's 
pamphlet  on,  224  ;  fanciful  names 
in,  225  ;  not  a  paradise  in  winter, 
229,  260,  n.  7  ;  value  of  the  fish 
eries,  261,  n.  7. 

New  France  bubble  ready  to  collapse, 
346. 

New  Haven,  Davenport  and  his  com 
pany  planted  colony  at,  343  ;  col 
ony  united  with  Connecticut  by 


Index. 


royal  charter  at  the  Restoration, 
343  ;  stretching  westward,  345. 

New  Life  of  Virginea,  63,  n.  3. 

New  Plymouth,  Sandys's  plans  for  the 
foundation  of,  88. 

Newport,  Vice-Admiral,  reporter  of 
Virginia  affairs,  44  ;  threatened  with 
the  gallows  by  Dale,  44  ;  warned 
against  Archer,  64. 

Newtown,  Hooker's  company  settled 
at,  317  ;  intended  for  capital  and 
palisaded,  318  ;  superior  to  Boston 
in  one  regard,  318  ;  discontent  at, 
318,  319,  320;  questions  regarding 
boundary,  319 ;  cattle-raising  at, 
320  ;  the  church  at,  emigrated  bod 
ily  to  Connecticut,  325  ;  court  of 
elections  held  at,  335. 

New  World,  mirages  of  the,  2  ;  dis 
covered  because  it  lay  between 
Europe  and  the  East  Indies,  3  ; 
grotesque  and  misleading  glimpses 
of  the,  20. 

New  York  Colonial  Documents,  6,  m., 
43,  ni. 

New  York  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  23,  n.  7  ; 
second  series,  70,  n.  15  ;  80,  m. 

Nichols's,  Josias,  Plea  for  the  Inno 
cent,  146,  m. 

Nonconformists,  severe  measures 
against,  122  ;  in  the  Church,  142. 

North  Carolina,  coast  of,  called  Win- 
gandacon,  21,  n.  3. 

Northey,  Sir  Edward,  decision  on  the 
Maryland  charter,  262,  n.  n. 

Northwest  passage,  search  for  a,  4,  5, 
9,  10,  ii. 

Nova  Albion,  259,  n.  5. 

Nova  Brittania,  82,  m. 

Oath  of  allegiance,  241  ;  emigration 
oath  refused  by  Williams,  270  ;  new 
oath  for  residents  opposed  by  Wil 
liams,  289  ;  magistrates  unable  to 
enforce,  289. 

Ogle's  Account  of  Maryland,  264,  n. 
19. 

Oil  to  be  distilled  from  walnuts,  83. 

Oldham,  John,  an  adventurous  man 
of  lawless  temper  expelled  from 
Plymouth,  324  ;  led  a  small  com 
pany  from  Watertown,  324. 

Opossum,  the,  described  by  Purchas, 
1 8. 

Opposition,  Puritanism  the  party  of, 
no. 


Original  Records  of  Colony  of  Vir 
ginia,  78,  m. 

Overston,  sermons  preached  in,  by 
unlicensed  men,  142. 

Pacific  Ocean,  discovery  of  the,  3  ; 
belief  in  a  passage  to  the,  4,  6  ; 
nearness  to  Florida,  6  :  sought  via 
the  James  River,  8  ;  in  latitude  40°, 
9,  10 ;  via  the  Delaware,  10  ;  prox 
imity  of,  to  Virginia,  10,  22,  n.  6; 
to  North  Carolina,  1 1. 

Pagitt's  Heresiography,  143,  m. ;  14 \, 
m.  ;  157,  n.  I. 

Palfrey's  History  of  New  England, 
211,  m.  ;  218,  n.  8. 

Palisades  burned  for  firewood,  40. 

Paradox,  the,  of  colonial  religious  or 
ganization,  280. 

Parkinson,  Marmaduke,  explorer,  10. 

Parliamentary  freedom,  struggle  for, 
87. 

Parties,  the  two  great,  of  Protestant 
ism,  rise  of,  106  ;  results,  107  ;  lines 
between,  not  sharply  drawn  at  once, 
no;  controversy  between,  grew 
more  bitter,  114. 

Party,  a  moderate,  lamented  the  ex 
cesses  of  the  extremists,  117. 

Passage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  sought, 
3,  4,  9,  10,  22,  n.  5  ;  73,  74.  See  also 
NORTHWEST  PASSAGE  and  PACIFIC 
OCEAN. 

Patent,  royal,  validity  of,  questioned 
by  Williams,  274,  281,  289,  308, 
n.  9  ;  309,  n.  12. 

Patience,  the,  pinnace,  built  wholly 
of  wood,  41. 

Paulus,  Pieter,  Verklaring  der  Unie 
van  Utrecht,  312,  n.  18. 

Pearce,  Mistress,  "near  twenty  years" 
in  Virginia,  71,  n.  18. 

Pearl  fisheries  in  Virginia  waters,  95, 
n.  3- 

Peckard's  Life  of  Ferrar,  65,  n.  5  ; 
87,  m.  ;  93,  m. ;  account  of,  97,  n. 
10  ;  100,  m. 

Peirce,  John,  received  a  grant  from 
the  Virginia  Company,  184,  n.  4. 

Pcquot  war,  Williams  denounced 
slaughter  of  women  and  children 
in,  305  ;  plan  of  campaign  changed 
through  a  revelation,  338. 

Pequots  dangerous  on  Connecticut 
River,  323. 

Percy,  George,  on  the  arrival  at  Vir- 


368 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


ginia,  28  ;  on  the  sufferings  at 
Jamestown,  30  ;  increased  the  hos 
tility  of  the  Indians,  38,  64,  n.  4  ; 
inefficiency  as  governor,  44,  60,  n. 
2  ;  succeeded  by  Gates,  101. 

Percy  to  Northumberland,  46,  m. ; 
Trewe  Relacyon,  40,  m.  ;  60,  n.  2  ; 
64,  n.  4  ;  65,  n.  5. 

Perfect  Description  of  Virginia,  n,  m. 

Perfume  to  be  extracted  from  the 
muskrat,  95,  n.  3. 

Persecution  in  Queen  Mary's  time, 
103  ;  spirit  of,  pervaded  every  party, 
113  ;  of  the  Separatists,  141  ;  begot 
Separatism,  154,  155  ;  new  storm 
of,  163,  182,  n.  i  ;  starts  agitation 
for  emigration  to  Virginia,  168, 183, 
n.  2. 

Peter,  Hugh,  rebuked  Cotton  for  de 
fending  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  337  ; 
browbeat  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  wit 
nesses,  338  ;  returned  to  England 
and  favored  toleration,  348,  n.  7. 

Petition  to  House  of  Lords,  345,  m. 

Pharisaism  of  the  rigid  Sabbath,  132. 

Philosophical  Transactions,  78,  m.  ; 
79,  m. 

Pilgrims  brought  Barrowism  to  New 
England,  148  ;  Scrooby  and  Auster- 
feld  cradles  of  the,  149  ;  no  tradition 
of,  lingers  at  Scrooby,  150  ;  common 
country  folk,  151  ;  flee  to  Amster 
dam,  164 ;  theological  agitations 
drive  them  to  Leyden,  165  ;  dan 
ger  of  extinction,  166 ;  intermar 
riages  with  the  Dutch,  167  ;  emigra 
tion  to  Virginia  under  consideration, 
1 68,  182,  n.  2  ;  questioned  whether 
to  be  Dutch  or  English  colonists, 
169  ;  ask  aid  of  Edwin  Sandys,  in 
securing  religious  liberty,  169  ;  re 
ceive  two  charters,  a  general  order, 
and  a  liberal  patent  from  the  Vir 
ginia  Company,  172  ;  their  Com 
pact  under  the  general  order,  173  ; 
departure  from  Leyden,  174  ;  forced 
to  land,  select  Plymouth,  177  ;  suf 
fered  for  their  ignorance  of  colony- 
planting,  178  ;  honor  due,  186,  n. 
8  ;  "stepping  stones  toothers,"  188  ; 
slender  success  of,  stimulated  com 
mercial  settlements,  189 ;  the  "  large 
patent "  granted  to  the,  through  in 
fluence  of  Sandys,  206  ;  influence 
on  the  Massachusetts  colony,  212. 

Piscataqua,  settlement  on  the,  189. 


Plaine  Declaration  of  Barmudas,  65, 
n.  6. 

Planting,  the  first,  at  Jamestown,  29. 

Plants  of  every  clime  believed  to  grow 
in  Virginia,  82. 

Plays,  performance  of,  on  Sundays  pro 
hibited,  127. 

Pledge  signed  at  Cambridge  by  Win- 
throp's  party,  209. 

Plymouth,  ceremony  observed  at,  103  ; 
the  landing  at,  177 ;  horrors  of 
Jamestown  repeated  at,  179  ;  the 
second  step  in  the  founding  of  a 
great  nation,  181  ;  Roger  Williams 
"  prophesied "  at,  272  ;  people 
styled  "mungrell  Dutch,"  273  ;  dis 
turbed  by  Williams,  274 ;  gives 
him  a  letter  of  dismissal  to  Salem, 

275- 

Pocahontas,  33,  35,  37  ;  converted  and 
wedded  to  Rolfe,  49  ;  taken  to 
England,  49,  68,  n.  10  ;  captured  by 
Argall,  50  ;  dies  leaving  an  infant 
son,  52. 

Pocahontas  story,  the,  63,  n.  3. 

Pomp  and  display  at  the  court  of  Eliza 
beth,  98  ;  imitation  of,  objected  to 
by  the  Puritans,  100,  134,  n.  2. 

Popham,  Captain  George,  attempt  of, 
to  colonize  in  Maine,  178. 

Port  Royal,  map  showing  strait  near, 
8,  21,  n.  4. 

Pory's  Report,  70,  n.  15  ;  77,  m. 

Pots  and  Phettiplace,  narrative,  35, 
61,  n.  2. 

Powhatan  releases  Captain  Smith,  33, 

34,  35- 

Precinct  in  Virginia  asked  for  by  Cal- 
vert,  229. 

Presbyterianism  developed  under  Cart- 
wright,  112,  136,  n.  6  ;  swept  out  by 
\Vhitgift,  122  ;  hoped  for  in  New 
England,  213. 

Price  of  commodities,  rise  of,  pro 
moted  voyages,  22,  n.  5. 

Private  interest,  even  a  slave's  patch 
of,  put  life  into  Virginia,  48. 

Proceedings  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  Wheel 
wright's  sermon  in,  331,  m. 

Proceedings  of  Virginia  Assembly, 
80,  m. 

Property,  community  of.  See  COM 
MUNISM  ;  LABOR. 

Prophet,  the,  and  the  reformer,  306. 

Proportion,  lack  of  sense  of,  peculiar 
to  zealots  and  polemics,  130. 


Index. 


369 


Protestant  colonists  at  St.  Christo 
pher's  oppose  Catholic  fellow-colo 
nists,  231  ;  no  Protestant  minister  or 
worship  on  ships  coming  to  Mary 
land,  242. 

Protestant  Nunnery,  Ferrar's  commu 
nity  at  Little  Gidding  called  the, 

93- 

Protestantism,  English,  rise  of  the  two 
great  parties  of,  106,  107  ;  contro 
versy  grew  more  bitter,  114  ;  incor 
ruptible  in  Virginia,  231. 

Protestantism  on  the  Continent  near 
ly  wrecked,  198. 

Protestants,  English,  find  refuge  on 
the  Continent,  104  ;  compromises  at 
home,  dissensions  in  exile,  104  ;  the 
ultra  wing  tended  to  democratic 
church  government,  106  ;  return 
after  death  of  Mary,  107  ;  their 
petty  squabbles  develop  into  bitter 
feuds  and  struggles,  107  ;  wide 
spread  results,  107  ;  Baltimore  or 
ders  no  scandal  nor  offense  to  be 
given  to,  250  ;  his  policy  of  concili 
ation  toward,  in  Maryland,  251. 

Protestants  on  the  Continent  become 
Roman  Catholics,  198. 

Providence  Plantation  founded  by 
Williams,  296  ;  fell  into  inevitable 
disorders,  315  ;  an  example  of  the 
largest  liberty  in  religion  congruous 
with  civil  peace,  315. 

Provincetown  Harbor,  the  Mayflower 
in,  177. 

Public  Records  Office  Colonial  Pa 
pers,  54,  m. 

Pullein's  Culture  of  Silk,  95,  n.  2. 

Punishments,  various,  inflicted  by 
Dale,  46. 

Purchas  his  Pilgrimes,  2,  12,  m.;  18, 
22,  n.  6  ;  24,  n.  9,  n.  10  ;  28,  m. ; 
29,  m.  ;  30,  m.  ;  64,  n.  3  ;  65,  n.  6  ; 
69,  n.  14  ;  80,  m. ;  95,  n.  3  ;  96,  n. 
6  ;  97,  n.  9  ;  102,  m. 

Purchas's  stories  of  silver  and  gold, 

12. 

Puritan,  the,  never  easy  unless  he  was 
uneasy,  253. 

Puritan  community,  cost  of  the  good 
results  attained  in  a,  342. 

Puritan  conscience,  the,  let  loose 
against  old  superstitions,  119. 

Puritan  divines  in  high  church  posi 
tions,  143. 

Puritan  exodus,  the  great,  188,  239. 

25 


Puritan  opinions  condemned,  103. 

Puritan  pietists,  a  new  school  of,  327. 

Puritanism,  rise  and  development  of, 
98  ;  an  outgrowth  of  the  time,  103  ; 
an  effort  to  escape  from  formalism, 
109  ;  gathered  strength  as  the  lead 
ing  opposition,  in  ;  becomes  dog 
matic,  112  ;  evolutionary,  117  ;  im 
portance  of  secondary  development 
of,  1 20  ;  apparent  decline  of,  121  ;  be 
gun  with  Elizabeth,  seemed  doomed 
to  die  with  her,  122  ;  evolves  new 
issues,  123,  137,  n.  7  ;  opposed  to 
Arminianism,  133  ;  set  up  the  Com 
monwealth,  133  ;  threatened  de 
struction  of,  at  Leyden,  167  ;  under 
James  I  the  party  of  opposition, 

191  ;  conservative  under  Charles  I, 

192  ;  unamiable  traits  of,  manifested 
in   Endecott,  202  ;  course  of  events 
in   England  adverse  to,  203  ;  sup 
pression  of,  by  Laud,  239  ;  diver 
gencies  from,  in  Massachusetts,  267  ; 
existed  and  grew  through  prudent 
compromises,    268,    269  ;      Salem, 
north  pole  of,  271  ;  condemned  by 
its  false  and  harsh  ideals,  300  ;  char 
acter  of,  300,  301,  342  ;  an  ascetic 
system  of  external  duties  and  ab 
stentions,  327. 

Puritans,  why  so  called,  106,  135, 
n.  4. 

Puritans,  English,  contempt  of  the, 
for  aesthetic  considerations,  94  ;  rev 
erence  for  Bible  precepts,  109 ; 
would  have  no  surplices,  no  liturgy, 
109  ;  banished  the  symbol  with  the 
dogma,  ill  ;  importance  of  efforts 
toward  the  regulation  of  conduct, 
1 20  ;  dubbed  Martinists,  121  ;  dif 
ferences  forgotten  in  the  conflict 
with  the  Episcopal  party,  137,  n.  6  ; 
omitted  the  liturgy,  142  ;  present 
Millinary  Petition  to  James  I,  159  ; 
at  the  Hampton  Court  conference, 
160,  181,  n.  i  ;  not  eager  to  join 
Separatist  settlers,  188  ;  a  power 
ful  party,  192  ;  motives  for  emigra 
tion,  197  ;  fear  of  divine  judgments, 
198  ;  barred  from  all  public  action, 
203  ;  plan  for  a  Puritan  church  in 
America,  204  ;  carried  out  through 
the  Massachusetts  Company,  212  ; 
differences  among  the,  213  ;  exhila 
rating  effect  of  freedom  from  con 
straints,  213  ;  raging  against  indul- 


370 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


gence  to  Romanists,  235,  238  ;  be 
lieved  the  church  under  Laud  would 
become  Roman  Catholic,  239 ; 
dropped  "  saint "  from  geograph 
ical  names,  244  ;  rise  of,  to  power, 
240  ;  dominant  in  Parliament,  252  ; 
could  not  be  induced  to  leave  New 
England  for  Maryland,  252  ;  perse 
cuted  in  Virginia,  leave  there  for 
Maryland,  253  ;  at  peace  with  Cath 
olics  in  Maryland,  254 ;  their  ideas 
rampant  in  Maryland,  257  ;  send 
munitions  of  war  to  New  England, 
284 ;  conceived  of  religion  as  dif 
ficult  of  attainment,  328. 
Puritans  of  the  Massachusetts  colony 
not  Separatists,  212  ;  pathetic  fare 
well  to  the  Church  of  England,  213; 
persuaded  to  the  Plymouth  view  of 
church  government,  215  ;  leaving 
England,  239  ;  emigration  to  New 
England,  240. 

Quakers  put  to  death  by  Endecott, 
202  ;  protected  in  Maryland,  257. 

Raccoon,  the,  called  a  monkey,  19, 
24,  n.  10. 

Radical  and  conservative,  difference 
between,  constitutional,  109. 

Rain,  results  of  Puritan  and  Indian 
prayers  for,  16. 

Ralegh,  Sir  Walter,  sends  explorers 
and  colonists,  7  ;  History  of  the 
World,  21,  n.  3  ;  distrusts  Indian 
tales,  21,  n.  3  ;  a  lifelong  opponent 
of  Spain,  73. 

Rapin,  239,  in. 

Rappahannocks,  dress  of  the  chief  of 
the,  28. 

Ratcliffe,  enemy  of  Capt.  John  Smith, 
37 ;  ambuscaded  and  tortured  to 
death,  38,  64,  n.  4 ;  follower  of 
Archer,  64,  n.  3  ;  cruel  to  the  sav 
ages,  64,  n.  4. 

Ration,  a  day's,  pitiful  allowance  for, 
30,  46. 

Records  of  Virginia  Company  de 
stroyed,  54,  71,  n.  17. 

Recreations  on  Sunday,  scruples  re 
garding,  127  ;  forbidden  by  Dr. 
Bownd,  129. 

Reformers,  the,  of  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury  declared  against  a  priesthood, 
123  ;  and  a  Sabbath,  124. 


Relatyon  of  the  Discovery  of  our  River, 
29,  m. 

Religion,  motive  to  colonization,  220. 

Religious  enthusiasts  and  the  Angli 
can  church,  144. 

Religious  ferments,  leavening  effects 
of,  121. 

Religious  freedom  a  cherished  prin 
ciple  of  Roger  Williams,  286  ;  es 
tablished  at  Providence,  296. 

Religious  liberty  befriended  by  few, 
detested  by  Catholic  and  Protestant, 
298. 

Religious  service,  attendance  at, 
should  be  compulsory,  299. 

Report  of  Record  Com.,  329  m. 

Residents,  new  oath  of  fidelity  for, 
289  ;  successfully  opposed  by  Wil 
liams,  289,  309,  n.  12;  mercenary 
inducement  offered  to,  to  take  the 
freeman's  oath,  308,  n.  n. 

Retainers,  brilliant  trains  of,  99. 

Rhode  Island,  a  secondary  colony, 
220  ;  importance  of  the,  315. 

Rich,  Lord.  See  WARWICK,  second 
Earl. 

Rich's,  Barnabee,  Honestie  of  this 
Age,  96,  n.  8. 

Rites,  resistance  to,  an  article  of  faith, 
103. 

Ritual,  a  purified,  preferred  by  the 
extreme  Protestants,  106,  135,  n.  3. 

Ritual,  the  antique,  desire  to  change 
as  little  as  possible,  106,  135,  n.  3. 

Rivalry  with  Spain,  73. 

Roanoke  Island,  first  colony  on,  7  ; 
Lane's  hopes  for,  74. 

Roanoke  River,  story  of  source  of,  7. 

Robert's  Social  History  of  the  South 
ern  Counties,  125,  m.;  127,  m.;  129, 
m. 

Robinson  hanged  and  quartered  for 
extorting  money  from  "  pressed " 
maidens,  72,  n.  19. 

Robinson,  John,  joins  the  Separatists 
at  Scrooby,  155  ;  character  and  in 
fluence  of,  156,  158,  n.  3  ;  leads  the 
Scrooby  church  to  Amsterdam,  164  ; 
to  Leyden,  165  ;  idea  of  forming  a 
new  state,  167  ;  prayer  and  last 
words  at  departure  of  the  Pilgrims, 
175,  185,  n.  6;  advised  union  rather 
than  division,  176 ;  farewell  letter 
of,  185,  n.  5  ;  liberality  and  breadth 
of  view,  176, 185,  n.  6  ;  held  to  "  tol 
eration  of  tolerable  opinions,"  298. 


Index. 


371 


Robinson's,  John,  Justification,  157,  n. 
i,  n.  2  ;  219,  n.  g. 

Rogers,  Thomas,  opponent  of  Green- 
ham  and  Bownd,  139,  n.  n. 

Rogers's  Preface  to  Thirty-nine  Arti 
cles,  122,  m. ;  139,  n.  n  ;  143,  m. 

Rolfe,  John,  married  Pocahontas.  68, 
n.  10 ;  planted  first  tobacco  at 
Jamestown,  84. 

Rolfe's  Relation,  70,  n.  16  ;  71,  n.  17, 
n.  18. 

Rosier's  True  Relation,  17,  m. 

"Rowdies"  assault  the  Jesuits,  265, 
n.  24. 

Royal  Hist.  MS.  Comm.,  88,  m. 

Royal  Hist.  MS.  Com.  Rept.,  345,  m. 

Rushworth's  Hist.  Coll.,  216,  n.  2,  n. 
3  ;  petition  in,  226,  m.  ;  235,  m. ; 

344- 

Rustics,  the,  of  Scrooby  and  its  neigh 
borhood,  150,  151  ;  influence  of 
Brewster  on,  153;  of  John  Robin 
son,  157. 

Rymer's  Foedera,  229,  m.;  238,  m. 

Sabbath,  the,  as  a  holy  day  objected 
to  by  Luther  and  Calvin,  124  ;  rise 
of  the  Puritan,  124  ;  Sunday  first 
so  called  in  literature,  126  ;  passion 
for  a  stricter,  130  ;  doctrine  of  a 
Christian,  resented,  131,  139,  n.  n  ; 
in  Scotland,  132,  139,  n.  12  ;  of 
deepest  hue  in  New  England,  132, 
140,  n.  13. 

Sabbath-breakers,  punishments  threat 
ened  against,  138,  n.  8. 

Sabbath-keeping,  early  Puritan  ideal 
of,  127  ;  pushed  to  its  extreme,  130  ; 
new  zeal  for,  promoted  morals,  131  ; 
rigid,  a  mark  of  the  faithful,  132. 

Sadleir,  Mrs.,  indorsement  of,  on 
Williams's  letter  to,  268,  m. 

Sainsbury's  Calendar,  67,  n.  9  ;  207, 
m.  ;  262,  n.  9  ;  344,  m.  ;  345,  m. 

Salem,  north  pole  of  Puritanism,  271  ; 
protest  of  the  General  Court  against 
Williams  as  minister  at,  271  ;  at 
tached  to  Williams  and  refractory 
toward  the  authorities  at  Boston, 
280  ;  made  Williams  teacher,  284  ; 
deputies  turned  out  of  court  in 
punishment,  291  ;  indignation  at 
Williams's  banishment,  293. 

Salem  church,  organization  of  the,  200. 

Salisbury,  the  Dean  of,  attacked  by 
Mar-Prelate,  115. 


Salvetti,  correspondence  on  Calvert's 
resignation,  260,  n.  6. 

Sampson,  Thomas,  letter  to  Calvin, 
135,  n.  3. 

Sandy  Beach,  no  trace  of,  59. 

Sandys,  Edwin,  Archbishop  of  York, 
letter  of,  137,  n.  7  ;  transferred 
manor  place  at  Scrooby  to  his  son 
Samuel,  153,  170. 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  interested  in  the 
Virginia  Company,  54 ;  approved 
Dale's  course,  67,  n.  9  ;  arrested, 
69,  n.  13  ;  89  ;  chosen  governor  of 
Virginia  Company,  71,  n.  17  ;  88, 
170;  proposed  sending  maids  to 
Virginia,  71,  n.  18  ;  leader  of  the 
company,  87,  89,  170  ;  established 
representative  government  in  Vir 
ginia,  88  ;  plans  for  foundation  of 
New  Plymouth,  88  ;  sketch  of  life 
of,  in  Brown's  Genesis  of  the  United 
States,  97,  n.  10  ;  tried  to  secure 
toleration  for  the  Leyden  people, 
170  ;  one  of  the  fathers  of  repre 
sentative  government  in  America, 
173  ;  charges  against,  174,  184,  n. 
5  ;  parliamentary  antagonist  of  Cal- 
vert,  221  ;  in  disfavor  at  court,  222  ; 
Virginians  friendly  to,  230. 

Sandys,  George,  would  seek  the  South 
Sea  overland,  10,  n  ;  name  ap 
pended  to  The  Tragicall  Relation, 
66,  n.  9  ;  in  charge  of  manufactur 
ing  schemes,  83. 

Sandys,  Sir  Samuel,  owned  manor 
place  at  Scrooby,  153,  170. 

Sassafras  root  exported,  45,  68,  n.  10  ; 
68,  n.  ii. 

Savage  life  eagerly  observed  by  the 
English,  29. 

Sawmills  built  in  Virginia,  82. 

Scharf's  History  of  Maryland,  23,  n.  7. 

Schism  esteemed  the  deadliest  of  sins, 
142,  197. 

Scotch  settlement  in  Newfoundland, 
224,  258,  n.  3. 

Scot's  Magazine,  11,  m. 

Scrambler,  Bishop  of  Peterborough, 
to  Burghley,  142,  m. 

Scriptures,  reverence  for  the  letter  of 
the,  144. 

Scrooby,  the  cradle  of  the  Pilgrims, 
149  ;  a  region  noted  for  religious 
zeal,  150  ;  no  tradition  of  the  Pil 
grims  at,  150;  called  "the  meane 
townlet"  by  John  Leland,  152; 


372 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


owners  of  manor  place  at,  153  ;  the 
church  at,  154,  155. 
Seamen,  threats  of  brutal,  177. 
Seekers,  the,  a  sect,  the  last  reduction 
of  Separatism,  303  ;  in  New  Eng 
land,    probably    through   influence 
from    Holland,    303  ;    in    England 
as  early  as  1617,  304  ;  "  a  Seeker  of 
the  best  Sect  next  to  a  finder,"  314, 
n.  24. 
Seekonk    River,    Williams    removes 

from,  to  Providence,  296. 
Semi-Separatists,  the,  143. 
Separatism  and  the  Scrooby  church, 
141  ;     promoted     by    persecution, 
144  ;  rise  of,   146  ;  divergencies  in 
direction  of,  267  ;  protest  by  with 
drawal  of  communion  a  fundamen 
tal  principle  of,  271. 
Separatist,  Roger  Williams  conscien 
tiously  a,  270. 

Separatist  tendencies  of  Skelton,  271, 
Separatist  tone  of  Pioneer  church  of 

Massachusetts  at  Salem,  271. 
Separatists,  number  of  the,  136,  n.  6  ; 
importance  of  the,  141  ;  the  ad 
vance  guard  of  Puritanism,  141  ; 
regarded  as  criminals  by  the  Puri 
tans,  142  ;  causes  of  growth  of  the, 
144 ;  idealists,  144 ;  rise  of  the, 
146  ;  meetings  of,  in  London,  147  ; 
in  Amsterdam,  148  ;  one  vigorous 
society  of,  in  the  north,  149  ;  the 
Scrooby  church  of,  organized,  154  ; 
all-day  meetings  at  Brevvster's 
manor  house,  155  ;  new  persecution 
of  the,  163  ;  the  Scrooby  church 
resolve  to  flee  to  Holland,  163,  164  ; 
petition  for  leave  to  settle  in  Can 
ada,  167 ;  classed  with  criminals 
by  Bacon,  171  ;  held  their  opinions 
in  a  state  of  flux,  186,  n.  6. 
Servingman,  the,  not  a  menial,  134, 

n.  i. 

Servingmen  in  livery,  99,  134,  n.  I. 
Settlements,    sixteen,    in    Massachu 
setts,  275  ;  life  in  the  settlements, 
276. 
Settlers  emulate  the  treachery  of  the 

Indians,  92  ;  individual,  190. 
Shakespeare's  good  fortune  to  live  in 

a  dramatic  age,  99. 
Shepard,  Thomas,  a   new    congrega 
tion  led  by,  325  ;  letter  of,  quoted, 
348,  n.  5  ;  Theses  Sabbaticae,  140, 
n.  13  ;  Memoirs  in  Young,  328,  m. 


Sheriffs  had  many  liveried  servants, 

99,  134,  n.  i. 
Ship   carpenters   sent   to   the   James 

River,  83. 

Silk,  craze  for,  in  England,  76,  77, 
169  ;  wearing  of,  prohibited  in  the 
colony,  78. 

Silk  culture  attempted  in   England, 
76  ;  in  Virginia,   76,  77  ;  causes  of 
failure,  77,  78  ;  renewed  efforts  for, 
78,  79,  83  ;  authorities  on  these  ef 
forts,  95,  n.  3, 
Silk-grass  craze,  the,  79. 
Silk    manufacturing    established     in 

England,  77. 
Silkworms'  eggs,   hatching,   in   one's 

pocket  or  bosom,  78,  95,  n.  2. 
Skelton,  minister  at  Salem,  271  ;  ex 
treme  Congregationalism  and  Sep 
aratist   tendencies    of,  271  ;    death 
of,  283. 
Sloane  manuscripts,  British  Museum, 

22,  n.  4. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  a  trustworthy  to 
pographer,  9,  34  ;  captured  by  In 
dians,  9  ;  views  of  geography  of  the 
continent,  22,  n.  6  ;  becomes  leader 
at  Jamestown,  31,  36  ;  his  charac 
ter,  31,  32,  33  ;  story  of  his  own 
life,  32,  33  ;  the  Jonah  and  Ulysses 
of  his  time,  33  ;  explorations  and 
narrative,  34,  35,  36;  overthrown, 
36  ;  accused  of  design  to  wed  Po- 
cahontas,  37,  51  ;  later  years,  37  ; 
foresight  of  America's  future,  37  ; 
disabled  by  an  accident,  37,  60,  n. 
2 ;  sent  home  under  charges,  37, 
60,  n.  2  ;  accused  of  advising  In 
dians  to  attack  settlers  at  the  Falls, 
37,  60,  n,  2  ;  a  typical  American 
pioneer,  38  ;  account  of  his  writ 
ings,  61,  n.  3  ;  commended  by  the 
Virginia  Company,  61,  n.  3  ;  given 
to  romance  in  narration,  62,  n.  3  ; 
his  practical  writings  and  wise 
speeches,  62,  n.  3  ;  examples  of  his 
exaggeration,  63,  n.  3 ;  Thomas 
Fuller's  judgment  of,  63,  n.  3  ;  au 
thorities  in  the  debates  about,  63, 
n.  3  ;  refusal  to  share  his  power, 
64,  n.  4  ;  captured  by  the  French, 
178. 

,  Generall  Historic,  22,  n.  6  ;  27, 

m. ;  34,  m.  ;  35,  36,  m. ;  61,  n.  3  ;  66, 

n.  9;  95,  n.  3. 

— ,  New  Life  of  Virginia,  27,  m. 


Index. 


373 


Smith,  Oxford  Tract,  34,  m. ;  35,  36, 
m. ;  42,  m. ;  61,  n.  3  ;  64,  n.  3. 

,  True  Relation,  61,  n.  3. 

Smyth,  John,  the  Separatist,  migrated 
from  Gainsborough,  150  ;  continu 
ally  searching  for  truth,  186,  n.  6. 

Smyth,  Sir  Thomas,  governor  of  Vir 
ginia  Company,  70,  n.  16  ;  resigna 
tion,  71,  n.  17;  aroused  the  king's 
opposition  to  Sandys,  87  ;  resigned, 
88 ;  sorrows  of  the  colony  under, 
206  ;  faction  of,  230 ;  defense,  67, 
n.  9. 

Somers,  Sir  George,  wrecked  on  the 
Bermudas,  40  ;  builds  two  vessels 
and  takes  provisions  to  Virginia, 
41  ;  returns  to  the  Bermudas,  41  ; 
death  of,  42  ;  Somers  or  Summer 
Islands  named  from,  65,  n.  6. 

South  Sea  delusion,  the,  6,  7,  8  ;  an 
overland  route  to,  10  ;  behind  the 
mountains,  75  .  See  also  PACIFIC 
OCEAN. 

Southampton,  Earl  of,  interested  in 
the  Virginia  Company,  54  ;  threat 
ened  by  the  Warwick  party,  69, 
n.  13  ;  really  in  power,  71,  n.  17  ; 
procures  silkworm  "seed,"  77; 
elected  governor  of  the  company, 
89  ;  imprisoned,  89  ;  one  of  the 
fathers  of  representative  govern 
ment  in  America,  173  ;  Virginians 
friendly  to,  230. 

Southwest  passage,  conjectures  of  a, 
22,  n.  5. 

Spain,  rivalry  with,  the  motive  for 
planting  English  colonies,  73  ;  Eng 
land's  jealousy  toward,  74,  94,  n.  i  ; 
lavish  of  gifts  to  English  courtiers, 
223 ;  made  England  relax  penal 
laws  against  English  recusants, 
238. 

Spanish  example,  the  influence  of,  on 
English  projects,  73  ;  fishing-boats 
to  be  seized  at  Newfounde  lande, 
94,  n.  i;  jealousy  of  Virginia,  94, 
n.  i. 

Spanish  match,  the,  favored  by  Cal- 
vert,  226,  227,  258,  n.  2. 

Speed's  Prospect,  24,  n.  10. 

Spelman's  Relation,  60,  n.  2. 

Spices,  passion  for,  in  Europe,  22,  n.  5. 

Spirit  of  the  age,  escape  from  the,  diffi 
cult,  133. 

Squirrels,  flying,  18. 

Standish,  Captain  Miles,  escorts  the 


governor  to  church  on  Sundays, 
103. 

Star-Chamber  censures,  203,  216,  n.  3; 
Roger  Williams  as  a  lad  employed 
by  the,  268  ;  harsh  penalties  for 
Separatists,  270. 

State  church,  notion  of,  not  easily  got 
rid  of,  112. 

St.  Christopher's  Island  sought  by 
Catholic  refugees,  231. 

Stephen,  Sir,  denounced  May-poles 
as  idols,  118  ;  wanted  names  of 
days  of  the  week  changed,  118. 

Stith's  History  of  Virginia,  51,  m.  ; 
182,  n.  2. 

Stoughton  retracted,  290,  291  ;  pres 
sure  put  on,  297. 

Strachey's  Historic  of  Travaile  into 
Virginia,  24,  n.  10  ;  36,  m.  ;  59,  n. 
I ;  64,  n.  4  ;  65,  n.  7  ;  95,  n.  5  ;  97, 
n.  9  ;  102,  m. ;  True  Repertory,  65, 
n.  6. 

Strafford,  friend  of  George  Calvert 
and  his  son,  249. 

Strafford  Papers,  241,  m.  ;  263,  n.  13. 

Strait,  a,  sought  to  the  South  Sea,  4, 
6,  8,  9. 

Strasburg  and  Zurich,  cities  of  refuge 
for  conservatives,  104. 

Strasburg  reformers  attempt  to  reform 
church  at  Frankfort,  105. 

Straus's  Life  of  Roger  Williams,  308, 
n.  6  ;  311,  n.  17. 

Stubbes's  Philip,  Anatomic  of  Abuses, 
100,  m. ;  119, 127, 134,  n.  2  ;  135,  n.  5. 

Succession,  apostolic,  of  churchly  or 
der  and  ordinance  the  mainspring 
of  high-churchism,  302. 

Svmme  and  Svbstance.    See  BARLOW. 

Sumner,  George,  on  John  Robinson, 
158,  n.  3. 

Sumptuary  laws,  75. 

Sunday  had  sanctity  of  a  church  feast 
before  the  Reformation,  125  ;  Eng 
lish  reformers  retained  the  Catholic, 
125  ;  first  called  Sabbath  in  litera 
ture,  126;  scruples  regarding  recrea 
tions  on,  127;  brutally  cruel  sports 
on  the  old  English,  129  ;  strict  ob 
servance  of,  carried  to  New  Eng 
land,  132  ;  in  the  middle  ages,  138, 
n.  8  ;  legislation  on,  rare  before  the 
Reformation,  138,  n.  8  ;  in  time  of 
Edward  VI,  138,  n.  9  ;  sabbatical 
character  of,  denied,  140,  n.  13.  See 
also  SABBATH. 


374 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


Sunday  fishing,  juries  inquire  into, 
125. 

Sunday  morning  ceremony  at  Plym 
outh,  103. 

Sunday-Sabbath,  theory  of  a,  not  con 
fined  to  the  Puritans,  132  ;  Augus 
tine  on,  in  the  fifth  century,  137,  n. 
8  ;  140,  n.  13. 

Surplices  begin  to  be  used  in  Vir 
ginia,  183,  n.  3. 

Susan  Constant,  the  ship,  25. 

Sutton's  Hospital  founded  by  legacy, 
which  Coke  defended,  later  known 
as  Charter-House  School,  268. 

Swift,  Lindsay,  on  the  early  election 
sermons,  313,  n.  22. 

Symonds,  Dr.  William,  editor  of  sec 
ond  part  of  Smith's  Oxford  Tract, 
61,  n.  3. 

Synod,  the,  of  1637,  336,  346,  n.  i. 

Tales,  extravagant,  of  the  Indians,  7, 
8  ;  Ralegh  distrusts,  21,  n.  3. 

Taylor's  Observations  and  Travel  from 
London  to  Hamburg,  46,  m. 

Tempest,  Shakespeare's,  17  ;  sug 
gested  by  the  wreck  of  Gates  and 
Somers,  65,  n.  6. 

Tenant,  the  copy-hold,  driven  to  dis 
tress,  in. 

Tenantry,  the  suffering,  Puritans  make 
common  cause  with,  in,  135,  n.  5. 

Theater,  passionate  love  of  the,  99. 

Theocracy,  instability  of  a,  326. 

Thomas  Aquinas,  St.,  on  the  fourth 
commandment,  138,  n.  8. 

Thurloe,  263,  n.  13. 

Timber  sought  in  Virginia,  82. 

Tobacco,  profitable  cultivation  of,  in 
Virginia,  49,  84  ;  exported,  63,  n. 
10,  n.  ii  ;  96,  n.  7 ;  more  profitable 
than  silk-raising,  78  ;  culture  of, 
forbidden,  8 1  ;  King  James's  Covn- 
ter-Blaste  to,  84;  John  Rolfe  planted 
the  first,  at  Jamestown,  84 ;  heavy 
duties  on,  85,  96,  n.  8  ;  seven  thou 
sand  shops  in  London,  97,  n.  8  ;  in 
feriority  of  Indian,  97,  n.  9 ;  large 
profits  from,  231  ;  public  use  of, 
forbidden  in  Massachusetts,  285. 

Toleration,  the  Baltimore  policy,  242, 
263,  n.  15  ;  principle  of,  formulated, 
254 ;  Act  of,  passed  in  1649,  255, 
256,  257  ;  intolerable  to  the  rulers 
of  "the  Bay,"  297;  limited  and 
qualified  at  Amsterdam,  298  ;  de 


cried  as  a  great  crime  by  all  the 
world,  298  ;  a  beneficent  result  of 
commerce,  298,  312,  n.  18. 

Tortures,  legal,  examples  of,  46, 67,  n.  9. 

Town  government,  the  principal  fea 
ture  of  civil  organization,  325. 

Town  system,  the,  275. 

Trade  with  the  Indians  by  Captain 
John  Smith,  34 ;  suspended  after 
Smith's  departure,  38  ;  renewed  by 
Capt.  Argall,  50. 

Tragicall  Relation,  40,  m. ;  56,  m.  ; 
66,  n.  9  ;  68,  n.  12. 

Trainbands  drilled,  284. 

Travel,  taste  for  books  of,  2. 

Treasure  received  by  Spain  from 
America  influenced  English  colo 
nial  projects,  73  ;  wrought  mischief 
to  England,  94,  n.  I. 

True  Declaration  of  the  Estate  of  the 
Colony  of  Virginia,  40,  m.  ;  56,  m.  ; 
65,  n.  5,  n.  8. 

Trumbull's  Blue  Laws,  347,  n.  2. 

Tucker,  Daniel,  builds  boat  at  James 
town,  39. 

Underbill,  Captain,  sent  after  Wil 
liams,  295. 

Unicorn,  reported  find  of  the,  19,  24, 
n.  10. 

Uniformity  not  possible,  109. 

Upper  House,  dissension  concerning 
power  of  the,  in  Massachusetts,  286. 

Utopia,  the  religious,  attempted  in 
New  England,  342. 

Van  der  Donck's  New  Netherland, 
23,  n.  7. 

Van  Meteren,  Nederlandsche  Historic, 
312,  n.  18. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry,  the  younger,  fa 
vored  the  Antinomians,  267 ;  an 
ardent  Puritan,  332  ;  arrives  in 
Boston  and  is  elected  governor, 
332  ;  a  disciple  of  Cotton,  333  ;  de 
feat  of,  336  ;  leaves  the  colony,  337. 

Vaughan's  Golden  Fleece,  261,  n.  7. 

Vessel,  the  first  Virginia,  built  by 
Captain  Argall,  50. 

Vestments  objected  to,  in  reign  of  Ed 
ward  VI,  103  ;  bitter  debates  about, 
108  ;  ceased  to  be  abhorrent,  123. 

Virginia  Assembly  petitions  the  king, 
56  ;  proceedings  of  the  first,  70,  n.  15. 

Virginia  colony,  the,  8  ;  emigrants  set 
sail,  25  ;  code  of  laws  and  orders, 


Index. 


375 


26  ;  character  of  the  emigrants,  27  ; 
arrival,  27  ;  first  meetings  with  the 
Indians,  28  ;  the  winter  of  misery, 
29  ;  fear  of  attack  from  the  Indians, 
30 ;  food  bought  of  the  Indians, 
31  ;  five  hundred  colonists  arrive 
under  Archer  and  Ratcliffe,  36 ; 
settlements  at  Nansemond  and  the 
falls  of  the  James  River,  37;  famine 
of  1609-' 10,  38  ;  only  sixty  sur 
vivors  in  June,  1610,  40  ;  arrival  of 
Gates  and  Somers,  40 ;  Jamestown 
abandoned,  41  ;  arrival  of  De  la 
Warr,  41  ;  De  la  Warr's  govern 
ment,  42  ;  flight  of  De  la  Warr,  43  ; 
second  lease  of  life,  43  ;  inefficient 
government  of  George  Percy,  44  ; 
martial  law  and  slavery  under 
Thomas  Dale,  45  ;  ten  men  escape, 
47  ;  Dale's  services,  47  ;  private  gar 
dens  allowed,  48  ;  tobacco  cultivated, 
49  ;  Argall's  government  and  treach 
ery,  50-52  ;  the  Great  Charter,  1618, 
55>  Z73  >  j°y  at  its  receipt,  56 ; 
feared  re-establishment  of  the  old 
tyranny,  56,  70,  n.  16  ;  wives  sup 
plied,  57 ;  the  first  homes,  58  ; 
whole  number  of  colonists,  58  ;  four 
fifths  perished,  59  ;  petition  to  the 
king,  65,  n.  5  ;  began  raising  silk 
worms,  76  ;  the  silk-grass  craze  in, 
79  ;  glass  and  iron  works  established 
and  failed  in,  83  ;  planted  tobacco, 

84  ;  struck  root  and  its  life  assured, 

85  ;  gained  impetus  from  the  king's 
opposition,     89 ;     government     of, 
passed  to  the  Crown,  92  ;  reached 
its   greatest  prosperity,   186,  n.   8 ; 
inhospitable    to    Lord    Baltimore, 
230  ;    opposes    Roman    Catholics, 
231,   261,  n.  9  ;  reckless  living  of 
people  and  clergy,  231  ;  expulsion 
of  Lord  Baltimore  from,  232  ;  new 
emigration  to,  344  ;  second  genera 
tion  of  native  Virginians  appears, 
345 ;   better   ministers  in  the  par 
ishes  and  order  in  the  courts,  345. 

Virginia  colony,  map  of,  by  John 
White,  1586,  8,  21,  22. 

Virginia  Company,  letter  of,  to  Gov 
ernor  Wyatt  quoted,  22,  n.  5  ;  code 
of  laws  and  orders  for  its  colonists, 
26  ;  swindled  and  robbed,  52  ;  fall  of 
the  lottery,  53  ;  revival  of  interest, 
53  ;  records  destroyed,  54  ;  change 
in  conduct  of  affairs,  55  ;  cruelty 


of  agents  paralleled  by  those  of  the 
East  India  Company,  67,  n.  9 ; 
overthrow  of  the  company,  70,  n. 
16  ;  dissolved  in  1624,  85,  89,  92  ; 
organized  for  trading,  86  ;  passed 
out  of  the  control  of  traders,  87  ; 
King  James  interferes  with  the 
election,  88  ;  grants  two  charters 
and  a  liberal  patent  to  the  Pilgrims, 
172  ;  also  leave  to  establish  a  pro 
visional  government,  173  ;  Lord 
Baltimore  a  member  and  councilor 
of,  224,  229,  230  ;  attempt  to  take 
away  privileges  granted  to  the  colo 
nists,  230. 

Virginia  Company's  Manuscript  Rec 
ords.  See  MANUSCRIPT  RECORDS, 
VIRGINIA  COMPANY. 

Virginia  Richly  Valued,  79,  m. ;  95, 
n.  3.. 

Virginians  obliged  to  pay  quitrents  in 
Maryland,  249. 

Vries,  David  P.  de,  Voyages,  308,  n.  7. 

Waddington's Congregational  History, 
167,  m. 

Walker's  First  Church  in  Hartford, 
317,  m.  ;  321,  m. 

Ward'sSimpleCobbler,285,m.;  299, m. 

Warwick,  second  Earl,  intrigues  to 
wreck  the  Virginia  Company,  51, 
68,  n.  13  ;  protects  Argall  in  his 
plundering,  52  ;  has  Cavendish  and 
others  arrested,  69,  n.  13  ;  loses  in 
fluence  in  the  company,  87 ;  made 
Governor  in  Chief  and  Lord  High 
Admiral  of  all  plantations  in  Amer 
ica,  252. 

W7aterhouse's  Declaration  of  Virginia, 
22,  n.  6. 

Watertown  church,  part  of,  ready  to 
follow  Hooker,  323  ;  one  of  the  cen 
tres  of  discontent,  324. 

Welde's  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign, 
and  Ruine  of  Antinomianism,  330, 
m.;336,m.;339,m.;340,m.;  347, n. 4. 

WTentworth,  friend  of  Calvert,  222. 

West,  insubordinate  settlers  under, 
37, 60,  n.  2  ;  Indians  hostile  to,  60, 
n.  2  ;  treacherous  and  cruel,  64,  n.  4. 

West  India  plants  tried  in  Virginia,  82. 

Weston  Documents,  n,  m. 

Wethersfield,  John  Oldham  and  his 
company  settled  at,  324. 

Weymouth  kidnapped  Maine  Indians, 


376 


The  Beginners  of  a  Nation. 


Whale-fishing  in  Lake  Ontario,  u. 

Whelewright,  brother-in-law  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  336  ;  banished  at  No 
vember  court  following  the  synod, 
337  ;  testimony  regarding  his  sister- 
in-law,  348,  n.  6. 

Whelewright's  sermon,  331,  m. 

Whincop  charter  not  used,  184,  n.  4  ; 
186,  n.  8. 

Whiston  a  place  of  Puritan  assem 
blage,  142. 

Whitaker,  Alexander,  praises  Dale, 
66,  n.  9  ;  minister  at  Henrico,  168  ; 
letters,  183,  n.  3. 

Whitaker's  Good  Newes  from  Vir 
ginia,  66,  n.  9  ;  168. 

Whitbourne,  Captain,  pamphlet  on 
Newfoundland,  224,  258,  n.  3  ;  let 
ters  of  Wynne  and  others  in,  229, 
m. 

White,  Father,  Relatio  Itineris,  243, 
m. ;  244,  m. ;  263,  n.  16  ;  on  settle 
ment  of  Montserrat,  261,  n.  9  ;  263, 
n.  14,  n.  16. 

White,  John,  of  Dorchester,  an  active 
colonizer,  189,  199,  203. 

White,  John,  map  of  Virginia  by, 
1586,  8  ;  in  Grenville  Collection, 
21,  n.  4  ;  reproduced  in  the  Century 
Magazine,  22,  n.  4  ;  copy  in  Kohl 
Collection,  22,  n.  4 

White's,  John,  The  Planter's  Plea, 
190,  m. ;  199,  m. 

Whitgift,  Archbishop,  efforts  of,  to  sup 
press  nonconformity,  122  ;  ordered 
Bownd's  book  called  in,  132  ;  per 
secuted  the  Puritans  at  Scrooby,  153; 
declared  King  James  inspired,  161. 

Whittingham,  Dean  of  Durham,  au 
thor  of  A  Brieff  Discourse,  135,  n.  3  ; 
on  the  Puritan  side  in  Frankfort, 

143- 

Williams,  Roger,  in  advance  of  his 
age,  256  ;  opposed  the  authorities 
in  Massachusetts,  267  ;  early  career 
of,  268  ;  refused  preferments,  269, 
307,  n.  2  ;  flight  of,  to  New  Eng 
land,  270  ;  refuses  communion  with 
the  Boston  church,  270,  307,  n.  3  ; 
opposed  to  compromise,  271,  307, 
n.  4  ;  his  selection  as  minister  at 
Salem  opposed  by  the  General  Court, 
271,  272 ;  removed  to  Plymouth, 
272  ;  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  dialect 
of  the  New  England  Indians,  273  ; 
rebuked  Bradford  and  wrote  against 


the  royal  patents,  274,  281,  308,  n. 
9  ;  returned  to  Salem  with  some 
followers,  275  ;  his  ideal  too  high 
for  that  age,  281  ;  preached  without 
holding  office,  281  ;  "  convented  at 
court,"  281  ;  charges  against,  based 
on  his  book,  "  not  so  evil  as  at  first 
they  seemed,"  282  ;  the  broad  prin 
ciple  laid  down  by,  283  ;  made 
teacher  at  Salem,  284  ;  fast-day  ser 
mon  on  eleven  "  public  sins,"  286  ; 
dealt  with  ecclesiastically,  287  ; 
scruples  against  enforced  oaths, 
289 ;  new  charges  against,  289 ; 
champion  of  soul  liberty,  290  ;  in 
corrigible,  290,  291  ;  trial  and  ban 
ishment,  292,  309,  n.  12  ;  310,  n. 
13,  14,  16  ;  authorities,  310,  n.  17  ; 
on  account  of  illness  permitted  to 
remain  during  the  winter,  293  ;  a 
few  friends  faithful  to,  293,  294  ;  es 
cape  to  the  Indians,  295  ;  abandons 
settlement  at  Seekonk  River  and 
founds  Providence,  296  ;  banish 
ment  of,  an  act  of  persecution,  297  ; 
character  of,  301,  307,  n.  I  ;  a  col 
lector  of  scruples,  301,  302,  314,  n. 
23  ;  tenderness  and  friendship  for 
Winthrop,  302  ;  became  a  Baptist 
and  renounced  his  baptism,  303  ;  a 
Seeker,  303,  304  ;  his  moral  eleva 
tion  of  spirit,  304  ;  ascendency  over 
the  Indians,  305  ;  an  individual 
ist,  291,  305  ;  superior  to  his  age 
and  ours,  305  ;  his  prophetic  char 
acter,  306  ;  a  John  Baptist  of  the 
distant  future,  306 ;  enthusiastic 
nature  of,  307,  n.  2 ;  needed  no 
practical  consideration  to  stir  him 
to  action,  308,  n.  n  ;  magnanimity 
without  a  parallel,  310,  n.  15  ;  re 
moval  of  Williams  and  his  friends 
the  beginning  of  dispersions  from 
the  colony,  315  ;  prepared  a  harbor 
for  all  of  uneasy  conscience,  315. 

Williams's  letter  to  Mrs.  Sadleir,  268, 
m. ;  270,  m.  ;  letters  to  Winthrop, 
273,  m. ;  302,  m.  ;  307,  n.  5  ;  Reply 
to  Cotton,  283,  m.  ;  letters  to  Lady 
Barrington,  307,  n.  I ;  Letter  to  John 
Cotton,  the  younger,  307,  n.  2,  3, 
4  ;  letter  to  Major  Mason,  310,  n. 
15  ;  Bloudy  Tenent,  311,  n.  18. 

Wilson,  John,  interprets  battle  of 
mouse  and  snake,  277  ;  on  Wil 
liams's  book,  282  ;  condemned  by 


Index. 


377 


the  Hutchinsonians,  333  ;  given  to 
rhyming  prophecies,  338. 

Windebank,  schemes  of  Cecilius  Cal- 
vert  with,  250. 

Wine,  efforts  to  produce,  in  Great 
Britain,  76  ;  in  Virginia,  81. 

Wingandacon,  Indian  name  of  the 
coast  of  North  Carolina,  21,  n.  3. 

Wingfield  deposed  from  leadership, 
31  ;  recognizes  Smith's  services,  36  ; 
plot  against  the  life  of,  61,  n.  2  ; 
warned  Newport  against  Archer,  64, 
n.  3. 

Wingfield's  Discourse,  64,  n.  3. 

Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  warns  Wil 
liams  from  Seekonk  River,  296. 

Winslow's  Briefe  Narration,  172,  m.  ; 
175,  m. ;  185,  n.  6. 

WTinsor's,  Justin,  Elder  Brewster,  155, 
m.  ;  169,  m. 

Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  His 
tory  of  America,  21,  n.  I. 

Winthrop,  John,  principal  figure  in 
the  Puritan  migration,  202  ;  char 
acter  and  influence  of,  204  ;  made  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  204,  217,  n.  5  ; 
elected  governor,  210,  217,  n.  6; 
objected  to  a  government  directed 
from  England,  208  ;  superseded  by 
Dudley,  287  ;  recommended  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  to  Williams,  293,  294  ; 
lenity  toward  Williams  rebuked, 
301  ;  moved  house,  begun  at  New- 
town,  to  Boston,  318  ;  antipathy  to 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  330 ;  ministers 
rally  around,  332  ;  again  made  gov 
ernor,  336  ;  chief  inquisitor  at  the 
'trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  338  ;  evi 
dence  to  prove  Mrs.  Hutchinson  a 
witch,  340,  341  ;  wallows  in  super 
stition,  341. 

Winthrop's  Journal  (Savage's),  252, 
m  ;  272,  m.  ;  290,  m.  ;  291,  m. ;  294, 
m. ;  301,  m.  ;  307,  n.  3  ;  309,  n.  12  ; 
310,  n.  17  ;  318,  m.  ;  323,  m.  ;  329, 
m.;  336,  m.;  339,  m.;  340,  m.;  341, 
m.  ;  344,  m.  ;  348,  n.  8  ;  349,  n.  9. 

Winthrop's  Life  and  Letters,  198,  m.; 
217,  n.  4,  5,  6;  218,  n.  8. 


Winthrop's   Reasons   for  New   Eng 
land,  198,  204,  217,  n.  4. 
Wives  for  the  Virginia  colonists,  57, 

71,  n.   18  ;    supplied  to  Louisiana 

and  Canada,  72,  n.  18. 
Women,  proposal  to  send,  to  Virginia, 

71,  n.   18  ;  in  Gates's  party,  71,  n. 

18  ;  first  two  in  the  colony,  71,  n.  18. 
Wood,    beauty    of    the,    of    certain 

American  trees,  65,  n.  7. 
Woodnoth's  Short  Collection,   70,  n. 

16  ;  87,  m.  ;  account  of,  97,  n.  10. 
Wood's  New  England's  Prospect,  18, 

m.  ;  318,  m. ;  319,  m. 
Words  had  the  force  of  blows,  no. 
Wright's   Elizabeth  and  her  Times, 

142,  m. 
Wyatt,   Sir  Francis,  name  appended 

to  The  Tragicall  Relation,  66,  n.  9  ; 

opinion   of,  on    a   divided  govern 
ment,  207. 
Wyckoff,  on   Silk    Manufacture,   95, 

n.  3. 

Yeardley,  Sir  George,  arrival  in  Vir 
ginia,  71,  n.  17  ;  knighted,  134,  n. 
i  ;  instructed  to  administer  oath  of 
supremacy,  232. 

Yong,  Thomas,  in  the  Delaware,  10 ; 
seeks  a  Mediterranean  in  America, 
n. 

Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts, 
217,  n.  4;  317,  m. 

Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims, 
158,  n.  3  ;  167,  m. ;  184,  n.  4. 

Yucatan,  meaning  of,  21,  n.  3. 

Yucca,  clothing  made  from  the  fiber 
of  the,  79,  80;  a  "commoditie  of 
speciall  hope  and  much  use,"  So. 

Zeal,  passionate,  often  stupefies  rea 
son,  171. 

Zurich  and  Strasburg  cities  of  refuge 
for  conservatives,  104  ;  differences 
between  exiles  at,  and  those  of  Ge 
neva,  106,  107. 

Zurich  Letters,  135,  n.  3. 

Zwisck,  Peter  John,  The  Liberty  of 
Religion,  312,  n.  19. 


CHARLES  ALEXANDER  NELSON. 


THE  END. 


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